DK leadership backs Majtényi’s nomination for president

Budapest, February 24 (MTI) – The leadership of the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) party has called on its MPs to back the Socialist Party’s nominee for president, László Majtényi, a constitutional lawyer who recently said in an interview that his motivation for agreeing to contest the presidency was to “once again live in a constitutional state”.

“Majtényi stands for a more tolerant, supportive, greener republic and will fight against discrimination and corruption,” Ferenc Gyurcsany, DK’s leader, told a joint press conference held with Majtényi, who is a founder of the Eötvös Karoly Public Policy Institute and former commissioner for data protection.

In mid-February, the parliamentary group of the opposition Socialist Party announced its nomination of Majtenyi as their candidate for Hungary’s next president, Socialist leader Gyula Molnar remarking that Majtényi was committed to establishing “the fourth Hungarian republic”.

The forty votes of lawmakers necessary for the nomination are within reach, said Majtényi, because many want a tolerant Hungary that abides by democratic values, where free elections are a chance to change the government and where the fight against corruption and the fight against poverty are foremost priorities, he added.

Majtényi has also met the leadership of the green LMP party.

DK spokesman Zsolt Gréczy told the press conference that DK is still open to resuming talks with the Socialists. Talks were suspended when the Socialists chose Szeged Mayor László Botka as its candidate for prime minister, he noted, adding they stand ready to meet Botka, who, however, had yet to agree to a meeting. Cooperation rather than a “Gyurcsány-Botka fight” is what is now needed, Gréczy said.

Responding to Socialist criticism of Gyurcsány — who was head of the Socialist-Liberal government until resigning after it was revealed he had admitted to lying to win an election — was the last leftist politician to win an election, he noted.

Source: MTI