Opposition: Primaries only way to nominate credible candidates in 2022

Holding primaries would be the only way for the opposition to select the most credible candidates and mobilise their base for the 2022 general election, Péter Márki-Zay, the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, in southern Hungary, said on Thursday.

Only a united opposition would have a shot at winning in 2022 against the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, Márki-Zay, who heads the Everyone’s Hungary Movement (MMM), told an online press conference.

Because no third-party organisation will have a chance of even clearing the 5 percent threshold to get into parliament on their own, anyone who runs as an independent candidate or fields their own party list would be simply risking handing another victory to Fidesz, he said.

MMM has already decided whom to back in 65 of Hungary’s 106 electoral districts, Márki-Zay said.

He cited MMM’s sources as saying that primaries would have to be held in at least 85 districts.

Márki-Zay said it was of strategic importance for the opposition not to exclude or block anyone from running in the primaries in the interest of preventing third-party challenges in the general election.

Source: MTI