Gyurcsány calls on ruling party lawmakers to support call for early election

Ferenc Gyurcsány, the leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), has sent a letter to lawmakers of the ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat (KDNP) parties, asking them to support a call to bring forward the general election.

Gyurcsány said on Facebook that he would ask MPs: “Are you afraid of the Hungarian people? Do you support the call for an early election?”

In the letter also posted online, Gyurcsány said recent developments in Hungarian public life, politics and the economy “have unrevocably rocked the credibility of the sitting government and eroded its public support.”

He insisted the government had dismantled the system of democratic checks and balances in Hungary. “After the 2022 elections, it has become even clearer that, according to the spirit of the constitution, the government is acting unlawfully,” he said.

“Lawful governance is not the appearance of lawful actions but compliance with the will of the people as enshrined in law. The government broke the will of the people when it took over and dismantled the republic,” he said.

Gyurcsány said voters had not given the government a mandate “to strive to obtain exclusive power unconstitutionally”. “Only fair elections mirror the will of the people … and a government based on [unfair] elections is unlawful.”

Moreover, the government, he added, had failed to fulfil all its key promises, failing to maintain household utility price caps, to protect small and medium-sized enterprises and put Hungary’s economy back on its feet, he said.

He insisted that the Orban government was in the process of introducing “post-Communist Hungary’s most severe austerity package”, even as they were neglecting to tackle “skyrocketing inflation and fuel prices” and a decade-high public debt and a low-value forint.

“Hungary has been visited by an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis … we have been overtaken by the Czechs, Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians; we are now lagging behind in Europe,” the DK leader said.

“Apart from Hungarians, you have also betrayed our country’s network of allies. [Prime Minister] Viktor Orban is talking about Hungary’s neutrality in a global struggle but has actually taken the side of Russia and China against the interests of Europe, resulting in unprecedented distrust in Hungary’s government…”

Meanwhile, “all-encompassing corruption in Hungary and breaches of the rule of law” resulted in the country losing its access to EU funding worth 400 billion forints, Gyurcsány said. “Hungary has lost that money for good because of you,” he said in the letter. “What … could the country expect from another year and a half of governance by this majority?”

He said Hungary had an interest in a leadership with a credible democratic mandate, capable of making decisions with wide social support. “The current situation is untenable, and every day you continue to govern only adds to the hardships in Hungary.”

“Let the people decide! That’s why we propose that parliament announcing its own dissolution on March 1. The time until then will be an opportunity to create the legal and political foundation for fair elections. In view of all that, I ask whether you are afraid of the Hungarian people, and support early elections? Hungary is awaiting your answer,” Gyurcsány wrote.

As we wrote earlier, opposition Tisza leader Péter Magyar called for early elections.

read also: Will early election be held in April in Hungary? PM Orbán’s main challenger in “campaign mode” – UPDATED: Think-tank, NVI