Opposition: new president was “candidate of the corrupt pro-Putin” Orbán

The only way out of Hungary’s “historical dead-end” is via a change of government, the united opposition said after the election of Fidesz’s Katalin Novák as Hungary’s next president by MPs on Thursday, adding that: “Novák will never be the president of all Hungarians.”

Parliament elected the former youth and family affairs minister for a five-year-term with 137 votes out of 188 valid ballots.

The vote’s outcome was a foregone conclusion once Fidesz nominated Novák to replace János Áder, the Democratic Coalition, Jobbik, LMP, Mindenki Magyarországa Mozgalom, Momentum, Socialist and Párbeszéd parties said in a joint statement. Novák, it added, was the

“candidate of the corrupt pro-Putin rule” of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Read also: Here is the election program of the united opposition

In his address to parliament, Péter Róna, the opposition’s presidential candidate, said Hungarians wanted to belong to the West, to the EU and NATO “rather than to Putin’s Russia”, it said.

“In the April 3 ballot, two worlds will compete, and it will be United for Hungary that stands for the EU, NATO and for peace,” the statement said.