Socialist party leader vows to ‘carry on with characteristic politics’

Socialist Party (MSZP) leader Gyula Molnár on Monday vowed to continue the party’s “forceful political line” after deputy leader István Ujhelyi and PM candidate László Botka’s resignations.

As we wrote today morning, László Botka has resigned as the Socialist Party’s candidate for prime minister, and István Ujhelyi has also resigned as the Socialist Party’s deputy leader.

Molnár thanked Botka for “fighting” so far.

“We lost this battle but will win the war,”

Molnár told a press conference, referring to the Szeged mayor’s resignation from the top of the Socialist election list.

The party’s priority now is to coordinate the individual constituencies rather than finding another PM candidate, Molnár said.

The political scene is “not yet ready” for a characteristic Socialist politician to lead the democratic opposition, he said.

He said the Socialists would not abandon their voters and vowed to “show an alternative to the unsatisfied millions”.

Botka’s resignation also gives the party a chance to “return to the 700,000-800,000 voters supporting us”, he said.

The Socialists will look at the legal and political possibilities of joint individual candidates, Molnár said. Due to regulations of the Hungarian election law, the “winning scenario” would be if as many opposition parties as possible set up a joint election list, he said.

A board meeting to be held over the weekend will outline the further schedule of the campaign, Molnár said.

The party will likely hold a congress this year to finalise the individual candidates and the election list.

Molnár rejected Botka’s claim that a “political mafia” has “agents” among the Socialists. Disagreements within the party should not be put in a political light, he said, adding that “the current team is the one we will have to prepare for the election with”. He said he had asked the rest of the party’s leadership to stay on their posts.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI