Electoral Campaign Overview

According to a recent survey published on 26 March 2014 by TARKI, 38% of the total population supports the FIDESZ-KDNP coalition, 16% would vote for the centre-left alliance, 15% for Jobbik and 4% for LMP.

FIDESZ

The Prime Minister presented the views of the governing parties recently at the campaign rally of 29 March. According to Fidesz.hu, he talked about past achievements in detail and underscored that now we should prove that these achievements were not temporary but in fact meant the beginning of a new era. The speech can be summed up in three words: ‘Four more years’.

Strictly speaking, it was not a campaign event, but he said more about plans for the future in the speech of 19 March 2014 at the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Economic Season Opener. You can read the whole speech in English if you follow this link:
http://www.miniszterelnok.hu/in_english_article/the_development_of_the_new_economic_structure_must_be_continued

The centre-left political alliance

The centre-left political alliance of MSZP, E14 (Together 2014), DK (Democratic Coalition), PM (Dialogue for Hungary) and MLP (Hungarian Liberal Party) has been renamed recently to ‘Change of Government’ (Kormányváltás). The programme of the alliance was published on Attila Mesterházy’s facebook page (and also on the website of MSZP) after his speech in Szombathely. They have eight programme points: they want to create new jobs, increase the minimum wage, support micro-enterprises, reduce food prices, to achieve ‘sustainable and fair overhead cost reduction’ (rezsicsökkentés), support pensioners with extra money to cover the costs of medicine, eliminate long waiting lists and to end child hunger in the country. (Please note that the individual parties have the programme of their own available in Hungarian on their websites. These eight programme points belong to the alliance.)

Jobbik

Jobbik published its programme on 15 February 2014 on their website. Their programme has three pillars: ‘livelihood, order and accountability’ (author’s translation). It starts with ‘The Seven Chiefs Plan’ (A hét vezér terv). It presents seven projects for creating jobs in Hungary which is the most important goal of the programme. It continues with ‘The 60 Steps Programme’ (A 60 lépés program) that discusses six major problems that must be dealt with first. These problems include ‘land protection, the foreign currency crisis, depopulation, sustainable overhead cost reduction, public debt’ and Hungarian and Roma communities living next to each other (author’s translation). In the end, they also present their sector programmes.

LMP

The LMP programme consists of ten chapters which offer solutions guided by the principles of Ecopolitics, that is, ‘sustainability, social justice and “real” democracy’ (author’s translation). They argue for an eco-social market economy, gender equality and express their views on Rural, Tax, Education, Environmental, Energy, Transport and National Policies, with Ecopolitics in mind.

written by Magdolna Magonyi

Photo: MTI

Source: http://dailynewshungary.com/