Election 2018 – Opposition parties in debate about cooperation with Jobbik

Representatives of five opposition parties agreed on the need for a regime change, but had a sharp debate whether or not they should cooperate with Jobbik ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election, at a conference on Thursday.

Ágnes Kunhalmi, head of the Socialist Party’s Budapest chapter, said it was possible to achieve “full cooperation” of the leftist opposition parties for the April 8 ballot.

Jobbik is “not needed” for that, primarily because of its “ideological and moral grounds” but also because that party itself ruled out any cooperation, Kunhalmi told the conference co-organised by the Republikon Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. She cited polls showing that half of Jobbik’s voters would vote for ruling Fidesz in constituencies where their party was not running.

Viktor Szigetvári, the PM candidate of Együtt, said