The Opposition Roundtable, 1989

The 121 hours of unedited video recordings by Black Box Foundation are a unique historical source for the research of the regime change in Hungary, declared protected archival material by the Minister of Culture and Education in 1997.

The Opposition Roundtable was set up in 1989, the last year of the hegemony of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, where the newly (re)-established parties and civil organizations developed their common standpoint on the most important political, social and economic issues, such as a new constitution, free multi-party elections, transfer of state party property and funds, election of the President of the Republic, private ownership, freedom of press, the controversial Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric project, homelessness.

These cardinal points served a little bit later as the basis for the National Roundtable where the peaceful hand-over of power and transition to a multi-party system was negotiated with the communist party.

While some of the persons appearing in the videos soon disappeared from the public scene, others became the politicians who have shaped present day Hungary.