LMP and Jobbik backs Puzsér for Budapest mayor

The parties of the 21st century signed a trilateral agreement with Róbert Puzsér. The agreement means that Jobbik joined Politics Can Be Different (LMP) in supporting the mayoral candidate who promises a more liveable Budapest. Momentum Party has not joined yet. Puzsér said Momentum and all other organizations that agree with his programme had until June to join the newly-formed political center.

The trilateral agreement regulates all aspects of the cooperation. Both LMP and Jobbik are going to help Puzsér’s campaign for mayor of Budapest and they will also coordinate their efforts in all the 23 districts of the Hungarian capital. Their goal is to make Budapest more liveable and ensure the transparency of public spending.

“We are rising above partisanship because there is a mountain towering between partisan interests and we are climbing this mountain so that we could meet. Now we need to build a bridge between the different interests and the gap is bridgeable,”

Puzsér described the newly-forming political centre. Signed by the leaders of the modern 21st-century parties and the independent mayoral candidate, the cooperation agreement, subject to minor modifications, welcomes interested organizations, NGOs or political parties until late June, as long as they agree with the programme and are dissatisfied with Budapest’s current leadership. Puzsér said Momentum was not willing to join at the moment.

He added that he was open to all values except extremism, which he described as “out of the question”. He noted that if he experienced anything like that in either party, be it LMP or Jobbik, the affected party would be expelled from the alliance.

He made a few remarks about the left-wing parties, too. Puzsér said his group never discussed any future positions during the negotiations, which he was very happy about. In his view, this is a clear indication that LMP and Jobbik truly want to make a change while the left-wing parties have not communicated anything about their programme but they are already busy discussing future positions.

LMP was represented by co-presidents Márta Demeter and László Lóránt Keresztes as well as Budapest president László Moldován.

The delegates of the eco-party explained they backed Puzsér because he asked them to support a programme that LMP could identify with. The party’s experts will be actively involved in developing the details of the Walking Budapest programme.

On behalf of Jobbik, the trilateral agreement was signed by President Tamás Sneider, Executive Vice President Márton Gyöngyösi and Budapest President János Bencsik.

Talking about the goals of the new pole, Sneider said they wanted to break Fidesz’ dominance in the municipal elections so that they could oust as many corrupt local politicians as possible.

At the moment, there are two opposition candidates facing the incumbent István Tarlós who enjoys the government’s support. The candidate of the left-wing parties Gergely Karácsony and Róbert Puzsér will hold a primary in June to decide who the opposition’s sole runner will be against Fidesz’ veteran mayor István Tarlós.

As we wrote on October, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán requested Mayor of Budapest István Tarlós to run for office again in the next municipal elections. Orbán announced this after he had talks with Tarlós, read more HERE.

Source: Press release