Election 2014 – Socialist leader declares he has exclusively Hungarian citizenship

(MTI) – Socialist Party leader Attila Mesterhazy declared on Thursday that he does not possess any passports other than his Hungarian one, in response to an initiative for all lawmakers to state whether they were citizens of any other country.

Speaking in the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen at a news conference held with fellow left-of-centre campaigner, Gordon Bajnai, the Unity alliance’s candidate for prime minister said that they awaited the ruling Fidesz party’s response to the radical nationalist Jobbik’s initiative.

Mesterhazy said even were Fidesz not to respond, the entire Socialist parliamentary group would be happy to declare their citizenship. “Dual citizenship in itself does not pose a problem”, he said.

“I am a Hungarian citizen and I only have a Hungarian passport,” he said.

The Jobbik initiative came after it emerged that the disgraced former Socialist deputy chairman, Gabor Simon, had a false African passport.

Mesterhazy called unemployment and poverty as Hungary’s biggest problems.

At the press conference, Bajnai lambasted the government for what he saw as increasing Hungary’s dependence on Russian energy supplies.

At a rally after the presser, Bajnai called it crucial that young Hungarians working in other countries should return to Hungary.

Bajnai said that if the leftist parties should win the upcoming election, the next government would work to ensure “peace, calm, and reconciliation” for the country.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters