Hungarian opposition leader calls for early elections: Péter Magyar’s vision for a united Hungary
Opposition Tisza leader Péter Magyar called for early elections: he said in a New Year’s message on Wednesday that his party represented a new force that is able to govern Hungary and “give back to the country what has been taken away from it: decency, self-respect, justice, and hope for a better life”.
In a video on Facebook, he called on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to “hold a new election and give Hungarians back the right to make a decision”. “We have no more time to waste, a new election and a new mandate are needed,” he said. He called for early elections to be held as soon as possible “because we have no more time to waste, Hungarians do not have another year, they cannot retreat further”.
Magyar said that in 2008, Orbán had called for an early election, urging the government of the time to move away in the interest of the country. “For the ruling party at the time, its own prosperity was more important than the interests of the country,” he said, adding that “you have since become Ferenc Gyurcsány”, referring to the prime minister at the time. “Enough of the propaganda of hatred, of warmongering, lies and throwing money around,” he said.
He said 2025 would be dedicated to hope and “we will claim back our home country from the 3,000 people who currently enjoy the fruits of hatred and division, and who laugh contemptuously from the success of another smear campaign”. “We Hungarians will move away from the hatred and division forced upon us, and will show that love is stronger than hate,” he said. “With the help of well-meaning and decent Hungarian people, we will be able to build a new Hungary,” the Tisza leader added.
He said it would be “a country where families are able to make a decent living from their income, where the government is not ruling over the people, where there is no place for abuse of power, and the operation of the government is not based on all-pervasive corruption”.
He added that it would be a country “where health care, education and state administration again serve the wellbeing of the people, where our children get quality education and still enjoy themselves, where the administration of justice functions again and all offenders will be called to account, where our elderly fellow countrymen can spend their well-deserved old years with their families in a predictable way, with access to quality health services. A country that our Hungarian brothers and sisters from abroad can continue to rely on, where everybody can be proud of their origins, their religion, their cultural heritage, and where everyone can advance regardless of the environment they were born into,” he added.
“We Hungarians will reach out to each other, to everyone, also to Fidesz supporters, left-wingers, and liberals,” he said.
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