Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd Magyarországért)

EP election – Socialists: Europe social, cooperative community

The opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance sees Europe as a social and cooperative community that guarantees the financial and physical security of its citizens, the Socialist party leader told current news channel M1, using the slot allotted to his party to present its programme for the May 26 European parliamentary elections.

Bertalan Tóth, who also tops the Socialist-Párbeszéd list of MEP candidates, said

the ruling Fidesz party‘s engagement with “extremist politicians” and the party’s shift to the right served no purpose other than to diminish common European norms so that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán can go on “building his empire” and enriching his family and friends.

He said that in the meantime thousands are evicted from their homes, the country’s health-care system is in ruins and Hungarian wages do not even reach two-thirds of the European average.

A “social Europe” would mean introducing a European minimum wage of at least 240,000 forints (EUR 740) and a minimum pension of 95,000 forints. A European family allowance of 48,000 forints should also be introduced, Tóth said.

“We are also calling for measures ensuring that EU funds are spent on health care, education and the improvement of the working environment instead of enriching the prime minister and his circle of cronies,” Tóth said. To ensure transparency, Hungary should join the European Prosecutor’s office, he said.

Regarding illegal migration, Tóth said border protection in Europe should be a joint responsibility of the bloc.

As we wrote, the Socialists’ programme for the European Parliament elections features measures such as a European minimum wage and minimum pension, and the construction of European social rented housing to ensure a future where all Hungarian children can be born into happy families, István Ujhelyi, a joint Socialist-Párbeszéd candidate for MEP told.

May 7, 2019

EP elections – Socialists call for family-friendly policies

The Socialists’ programme for the European Parliament elections features measures such as a European minimum wage and minimum pension, and the construction of European social rented housing to ensure a future where all Hungarian children can be born into happy families, István Ujhelyi, a joint Socialist-Párbeszéd candidate for MEP, told a press conference on Sunday.

Currently, one in six Hungarian children is born to parents who have emigrated to western Europe,

Ujhelyi said. The alliance’s programme therefore makes demands of the Hungarian government and the EU to draw those families back to Hungary, he said.

Ujhelyi said it is the experience today of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian families that the “elitist, right-wing, nationalist government” only supports its cronies and the elite of society.

Párbeszéd co-leader Tímea Szabó criticised government subsidies for credit and new cars, saying that “enticement into a trap of debt will not produce more births in Hungary”, but only create “another tragedy”.

She said a package of Socialist-Párbeszéd bills earlier submitted to lawmakers could improve the “catastrophic” demographic situation of the country by doubling family allowances, expanding social rented housing, closing the gender pay gap, boosting job security for women and adding more places in creches.

HUNGARIAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN A TRAGIC SITUATION

May 6, 2019

EP elections – Socialists, Párbeszéd campaign for European minimum wage

The opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance proposes setting a European minimum wage of around 240,000 forints (EUR 743), 90,000 forints higher than the current minimum wage in Hungary, the Socialist Party leader told Tuesday’s Népszava daily.

The two parties also want a European minimum pension worth 95,000 forints and a family allowance of 47,000 forints per child, Bertalan Tóth said, adding that the minimum standard of living for EU citizens needs to be defined in terms of health care, education, wages, pensions and family support.

“This is a social Europe programme … that not only the European Social Democrats and Liberals support, but so does the [European] People’s Party,” he said.

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As we wrote before on March, the minimum wage in every European Union member state should be raised to at least 750 euros a month, Socialist MEP István Újhelyi told a press conference in Budapest.

ALMOST 10 THOUSAND NURSES DISAPPEARED FROM HUNGARIAN HOSPITALS!

April 30, 2019

Opposition women lawmakers call for extending moratorium on forced evictions

Opposition women lawmakers are submitting a joint amendment proposal to parliament to extend a moratorium on forced evictions from the end of April until the situation of FX loanholders is settled.

Independent Bernadett Szél told a press conference that their common aim was to prevent forced evictions based on unfair contracts which have been condemned even by the European court (CJEU). The Hungarian government has now nothing to do but enforce the decision and not allow anyone to be thrown out on the street, she added.

Conservative Jobbik MP Andrea Varga-Damm said

“[Viktor] Orbán’s government has failed to resolve the issue because they have acquired significant shares in the banks which are now practically making money for Orbán and the government oligarchs.”

Liberal Anett Bősz, sitting in parliament as an independent, said that in the absence of a social net victims of evictions should be protected by NGOs.

Socialist lawmaker Ágnes Kunhalmi said resolving the situation of FX loanholders was a “national issue” but the government has made only facelift measures so far.

Tímea Szabó of Parbeszéd said the victims of evictions had been cheated by the government and banks.

Ágnes Vadai of the Democratic Coalition said the government failed to provide support for accommodation despite banning living in the streets.

Representatives of the NGO Adóskamara told the press conference that the moratorium on forced evictions must be extended and the situation of FX loanholders must be resolved in line with the CJEU’s latest ruling.

Europe’s top court said in a ruling on March 14 that Hungarian laws should allow the cancellation of FX loan contracts if the contract includes an unfair provision relating to exchange-rate risk.

In 2014, the Hungarian parliament passed several laws designed to amend unfair terms of FX loan contracts on which repayments skyrocketed when the forint plummeted during the 2008 financial crisis. However, the exchange-rate risk remained a risk borne by the borrower. Hungarian laws have so far prohibited retroactive cancellation of contracts by the loan holder on the ground of unfair terms in the contract.

Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, commented on the proposal at a regular press briefing saying that

FX loan holders in difficulties should be distinguished from “those who refuse to pay their utility bills”. A moratorium would further encourage that behaviour, he said.

April 18, 2019

Socialist, Párbeszéd MEPs assess past EP cycle

Opposition Socialist and Párbeszéd MEPs, canvassing votes on Monday ahead of the European Parliament elections, said they had worked “to accomplish meaningful results for the future of Hungarian voters and the EU” rather than to oppose Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s policies per se.

At a press conference, Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi and Párbeszéd MEP Benedek Jávor said during the past five-year cycle, they had served the interests of Hungarian voters and the EU.

Ujhelyi, the deputy head of the EP’s transport committee, cited transport and tourism projects such as the Free Interrail programme and autonomous transport as examples of his work.

Jávor, who holds the fourth place on the joint list, said that

MEPs should represent the interests of Hungarians in a way that results in a successful and sustainable Europe.

Regarding his work on climate and energy policy issues, Jávor said that “real utility cost cuts”, as opposed to the “cost-cut lies” of the government, should be achieved by regulations helping Hungarian households to become more energy efficient.

The Hungarian government has harmed the EU’s basic values, and that is a threat to the whole of Europe, not only to Hungary, Jávor said.

“We sharply oppose the government on this matter.” The government, he added, had “no right to strip Hungarian citizens of their basic European rights”.

Fidesz reaction

The ruling Fidesz party responded in a statement that left-wing “pro-migration” MEPs had acted “against the will of Hungarian voters” as Ujhelyi and Javor had voted for every pro-migration proposal that Brussels put forward over the past five years, flying in the face of the will of Hungarians.

“Hungary needs MEPs who represent the interests of Hungarian people in Brussels and not the other way round,” the statement added.

April 16, 2019

Opposition mayor candidate promises green city in local election programme

Joint candidate of the opposition Socialists and Parbeszed parties for Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony promised a free, green and liveable city in his election programme launched on Saturday.

Karácsony said he would work for a city where residents have a better quality of life and can therefore live longer.

Instead of being a strong-handed leader, the candidate said he wanted to lead a strong city. He added that he insisted on the pre-selection of opposition candidates because he believed in the power of the community and wanted to develop his programme’s priorities in cooperation with Budapest residents.

opposition mayor candidate — Featured image: MTI

Karácsony cited the example of Vienna which he said had been run by progressive mayors for a hundred years.

He called for a strong community-based home rental scheme and said that people who buy an annual card should not pay more than one hundred forints (30 euro cents) a day for using public transport.

He promised establishing a “green corridor” in Budapest from Margaret Island through Hajógyári Island to Római embankment in the north and pledged to prevent “unnecessary developments” such as a “sneaking Olympics project”.

Karácsony called for a clean, well-ordered and safe city and promised to pay “metropolitan bonuses” to police.

Commenting on the financial resources needed for developments, he said at least a thousand billion forints could be gained from stopping projects that are not supported by the majority of Budapest residents, only by the ruling Fidesz party.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/KardosIldikóPhotography

April 14, 2019

EP elections – Socialist-Párbeszéd urges euro introduction in Hungary

The opposition Socialist and allied Párbeszéd parties have called for introducing the euro as soon as possible in Hungary.

Introducing the euro would make it clear that Hungary “wants to belong to the core of Europe rather than to its periphery”, a lawmaker of Párbeszéd told a press conference on Thursday.

Bence Tordai noted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s cautioning earlier of the possibility of a new economic crisis which Tordai said could seriously hit Hungary’s small and vulnerable economy.

He said the two parties propose as a safeguard for Hungary to join ERM II, commonly referred to as the ante-chamber to the euro zone, in 2020.

Balázs Bárány, member of the Socialists’ national board, said introducing the euro would guarantee Hungary a stable position in the European community in the long term.

The two parties have called a competition for a Hungarian design of the currency with an April 26 deadline set for submitting bids, he said.

The designs will be put on display for a public vote on May 1, Bárány said.

April 12, 2019

EP elections – Socialists: EP elections crucial

The European parliamentary elections next month will be crucial in deciding whether “self-serving nationalists” or democratic forces are ascendant, the head of the opposition Socialist Party’s national assembly said on Wednesday.

“The future of European Union nations is contingent on deepening integration,” Ágnes Kunhalmi told a press conference in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary.

“We can safeguard Europe’s peace, welfare and the security of its people by cooperating with other nation states,” she said, adding that the independence of the Hungarian nation cannot be preserved by pursuing a policy of “a tight fist”.

If nationalists “like Le Pen, Orbán, Salvini and Kaczynski” gain momentum in the May ballot, Europe’s peoples can be fearful of their security, welfare and sovereignty and will face an uncertain future, Kunhalmi said.

She noted that the Socialists and allied Párbeszed were the only opposition parties to put forward a joint opposition list of candidates for the EP elections. Kunhalmi vowed that their MEPs would fight for a Europe-wide minimum wage of 750 euros, a minimum pension of 300 euros and a family allowance of 150 euros. They will also lobby for land-based farm subsidies and a top VAT rate in Hungary of 20 percent.

The party alliance expects to win three mandates in the EP, she said.

April 11, 2019

Hungarian top court: labour code changes, administrative courts law valid! – UDATE

Hungary’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday declared an amendment to the labour code and the law on the new administrative court system adopted by parliament on Dec. 12 last year to be lawful.

As we wrote, Parliament on Wednesday voted to extend the period employers may account overtime for the purpose of calculating wages and rest days from twelve months to three years, and to raise the upper threshold for annual overtime from 250 to 400 hours, read more HERE.

Opposition MPs had gathered a quarter of members of parliament to appeal the amendment and the legislation, which they argued were adopted amid a breach of parliament’s rules and in conflict with the constitution.

Among the lawmakers’ objections was that parliament’s speaker had not chaired the session from the speaker’s podium.

The court said that voting conditions had not breached so-called guarantee rules and that MPs were personally responsible for meeting procedural expectations of the house, noting that opposition lawmakers had prevented the speaker from accessing the podium.

The court added that, in any case, the rules do not stipulate that sessions may only be held if the speaker occupies the podium.

According to the court, a “constitutional necessity to ensure reasonable operations of parliament” could justify “measures to save majority decision-making from suffering unreasonably large drawbacks arising from the democracy of the assembly”.

The court cited a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, too, declaring that the freedom of debates in parliament is “not unrestricted” and “parliament has the right to intervene when its members disrupt the usual order of the legislative process”. The also noted that “the parliamentary speaker has the right and obligation to ensure that parliament’s dignity is not violated”.

The court admitted that under the law, parliament should have two notaries on duty at any time, “possibly” one delegated by the ruling parties and the other from the opposition, but said that parliament’s having two ruling party notaries on Dec. 12 was “not a violation of the rules but due to the pressure of circumstances”.

Addressing complaints concerning the technical procedure of voting, the court said that it is not stipulated that deputies can only cast their ballot in electronically.

The court said parliament’s session on Dec. 12 had had the required quorum and the required number of votes was cast for the motions on the agenda for that day.

The court turned down all appeals concerning the Dec. 12 parliamentary session in a unanimous vote of all 15 members.

UPDATE

The opposition Socialist and allied Párbeszéd parties said they would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the Constitutional Court ruling.

At a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court building, Socialist MP Ildikó Bangó Borbély said that the top court “filled with Fidesz party soldiers” has ruled against Hungarian employees and in favour of the government.

Párbeszéd MP Bence Tordai accused the top court of cowardice for separating complaints about the voting procedure from objections to the content of the Dec. 12 bills and declining to discuss the latter.

MIGRANTS WITHOUT WORK PERMITS COMING FROM SERBIA AND UKRAINE

In the last nine months the number of job roles that are open to non-EU citizens without a Hungarian work permit has risen by 20. Therefore we can meet Serbian shelf-stackers and Ukrainians working in customer service. Read more HERE.

April 9, 2019

EP elections – Párbeszéd congress approves pact with Socialists

A congress of opposition Párbeszéd unanimously approved on Sunday a pact with the opposition Socialists on putting Párbeszéd MEP Benedek Jávor in the fourth spot on their joint list of candidates for the European Parliament elections in May.

At a press conference after the congress, Jávor said Párbeszéd’s and the Socialists’ campaign would “leave no stone unturned”. Activists will be everywhere convincing people that the fate of Hungary depends on the degree of support the opposition wins in the elections on May 26, he added.

He said governing Fidesz has stopped representing the interests of Hungary in Europe and is only seeking conflict.

Socialists chairman Bertalan Tóth, also speaking at the press conference, welcomed the decision of the Párbeszéd congress and noted that the Socialists’ party leadership had decided on Sunday to partner with Parbeszed in the autumn local council elections, too.

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EP ELECTIONS – FIDESZ STARTS SIGNATURE DRIVE

Governing Fidesz on Saturday launched a country-wide signature drive to support Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s seven-point programme to stop immigration, read more HERE.

April 8, 2019

Opposition parties blast Fidesz’ EP campaign launch

Hungary’s opposition parties on Friday slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech launching his Fidesz party’s European parliamentary election campaign, accusing Fidesz of being “anti-European” and of ignoring Hungary and Europe’s real problems.

The Socialist Party said that back in 2009, “the first time Fidesz had an EP election programme“, Fidesz had still been a “pro-Europe” party, but had since then become “anti-European”. István Újhelyi, the party’s MEP, told a press conference that the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance was offering people a choice between Europe and “Orbanistan”.

Párbeszéd’s Bence Tordai said the reason why Orbán was focused on the issue of national sovereignty was because he believed certain EU policies, such as the establishment of a European prosecutor’s office, were against the interests of his party.

He said the prime minister was using the issue of migration as a distraction from the emigration of Hungarians.

Péter Jakab of nationalist Jobbik said Orbán’s Fidesz was “Europe’s largest immigration-organising group”, accusing the party of driving Hungarians out of their country in a bid to replace them with economic migrants from outside the EU. On May 26, Hungarians will have to decide whether they want to see western wages or “eastern immigrant workers” in their homeland, he said.

Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the leftist Democratic Coalition, said in a Facebook entry that out of the challenges facing Europe, Orbán was only focused on migration.

“One who only sees this is a traitor to his country,” Gyurcsány said, adding that the issue of emigration and the problems faced by Hungary’s education and health-care sectors could not be solved with “fearmongering over the no-longer-existent refugee crisis”.

The radical nationalist Mi Hazánk Movement party criticised Orbán for failing to urge the levelling of wages between the older and newer EU member states. In a statement, party leader László Toroczkai said Orbán had also failed to mention that Hungary’s demographic challenges were further exacerbated by the “problem of Hungarian-Gypsy coexistence”.

Featured image: MTI

April 6, 2019

Hungary parties divided on outcome of EPP meeting

Hungary’s political parties were divided on the outcome of Wednesday’s meeting of the European People’s Party’s political assembly where Fidesz agreed to suspend its membership in the centre-right grouping. Fidesz declared the debate a failed attempt by the pro-migration delegates to expel the party while the opposition called it a defeat for Fidesz.

Fidesz’s parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis said that “while many demanded that the EPP expel Fidesz, including the European Socialists, Dutch MEP Judith Sargentini and — using the liberal media — [Democratic Coalition leader] Ferenc Gyurcsány,” the group decided neither to expel nor to suspend the party.

In fact, Fidesz has itself decided to “voluntarily suspend its participation” in the work of the EPP, he said.

The opposition Socialists said Fidesz had lost its interest representation powers [in the EU]. “Hungary, however, must not,” Bertalan Tóth said on Facebook. “It is now our job to defend Hungary’s interests in the EU since Viktor Orbán will no longer be able to do that,” he said. The Socialists will launch a signature drive so that Hungarians can express their will to keep the country in the EU, Tóth said.

Jobbik deputy leader Márton Gyöngyösi said in a statement that even though the EPP “allowed” Fidesz to agree to the suspension of its membership, it was still “clear” that Fidesz had “taken the first steps towards quitting the European Union”.

Democratic Coalition (DK) MEP Csaba Molnár told a press conference that Fidesz “was basically ejected from the EPP”. “They can try to prove that the opposite is true, but this is what has really happened,” he said. Klára Dobrev, DK’s top candidate in the European parliamentary elections, said: “Regardless of Orbán’s explanations, this is definitely a huge defeat”.

Leaders of the LMP party responded by saying that “it is absolutely irrelevant from the Hungarian people’s point of view what sort of a deal Fidesz and the EPP have made”. Fidesz has proven on several occasions that it is “unwilling and unfit” to represent the Hungarian people in the European Parliament, they said in a statement.

Benedek Jávor, an MEP of Párbeszéd, said on his Facebook page that Viktor Orbán’s plan “to pull the EPP to the right” had failed and his “game of bluffs is over”.

The Hungarian Liberal Party said it regretted that the EPP “retreated” from ousting Fidesz from its ranks. A suspension of Fidesz in the group has made Hungary a weaker and more vulnerable country, the party said in a statement.

Featured image: MTI

March 21, 2019

Opposition mayoral candidates to step down if they lose preselection

Gergely Karácsony, the Budapest mayoral candidate representing four opposition parties, and Róbert Puzsér, the green opposition LMP party’s candidate, have vowed to step aside in favour of the other in a primary to be held in the summer ahead of the autumn local elections.

Karácsony, the co-leader of the Párbeszéd party, was voted by Democratic Coalition (DK), Párbeszéd, Socialist and Solidarity Movement supporters as their candidate in a primary held in February.

As we wrote before, Párbeszéd’s Gergely Karácsony won the preselection vote to determine the left-wing opposition’s candidate for mayor of Budapest, defeating the Socialist Party’s Csaba Horváth. A total of 34,133 valid votes were cast over the course of the week-long ballot.

At a discussion organised by news site Válasz Online, Puzsér pledged to drop out of the race if he lost the preselection vote, but said that he would only support Karácsony if he implemented his “Walking Budapest” programme. Karácsony agreed to support Puzsér should the LMP candidate win, and said that their programmes “were not that different”.

March 13, 2019

Jávor heads Párbeszéd EP list

Párbeszéd MEP Benedek Jávor is heading the party’s list for the upcoming European Parliament election, the party said at its congress on Sunday.

At a joint press conference with Jávor on the sidelines of the congress, co-leader Gergely Karácsony said that

Jávor is followed by former MP Dávid Dorosz and co-leader Tímea Szabó on the list.

The congress mandated Párbeszéd leaders to start talks with the Socialists on fielding a joint list of EP candidates, as the parties did in Hungary’s parliamentary elections, Karácsony said. The alliance will welcome all pro-Europe forces, he said, but they accept the likelihood of the Socialists being Párbeszéd’s only partners, he added.

Jávor said he will continue to represent values such as sustainability, transparency and justice in the EP. He wowed to be a “ruthless opponent” of the Orbán government, to do everything he can to stop the upgrade of Hungary’s nuclear plant in Paks and to shine a light on corruption in Hungary.

As we wrote few weeks ago, the appeals court of Budapest has upheld the first-instance ruling in favour of Párbeszéd MEP Benedek Jávor, who sued the Hungarian government and Russia’s Rosatom company to make agreements concerning an upgrade project of the Paks nuclear plant public, read more HERE.

This year’s election in May will be more significant than usual, he said. The question is whether the EU will be able to strengthen cooperation within its own ranks or will shift towards disintegration, fragmentation and nationalist conflicts, as well as a regression to nation states, he said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán represents, in a single person, everything pro-Europe forces must stand up against, together, he added.

February 25, 2019

Half of the Hungarian political elite does not have a language exam

PM Orbán does not have a language exam, as well, even though he studied in Oxford at the end of the 80s with the help of a scholarship provided by a Soros foundation. However, students can only study forward in the Hungarian higher education from 2020 on if they have at least one B2 level, general and complex language exam or a certificate equivalent to it.

One can speak a language even without a certificate

In fact, the ruling parties’ supermajority accepted the relevant bill in 2014, and it will have a very significant impact on each student since. For example, if it was already in effect, 40 pc of the applicants could not continue their studies. Furthermore, the similar language exam is the prerequisite for getting a degree in Hungary and there were

92 thousand former students in 2018 who could not get their diploma because they lacked their exam.

Therefore, 24. hu analysed how many MPs have a language exam at the moment. They used the relevant data that can be found on the web page of the parliament where each MP has the opportunity to write their language knowledge (which is not necessarily an exam).

The found that out of the 199 MPs

98 does not have a language exam
7 have just a B1 level language exam
9 does not have just a written or an oral language exam part

As a result, 114 MPs could not study forward at a university today, which is 58 pc of the members of the parliament.

In the case of the parties

76 Fidesz
11 Christian-democrat
8 Jobbik
6 Socialist
6 Democratic Coalition
3 LMP
1 Párbeszéd (Dialogue for Hungary), and
1 independent

MPs do not have a language exam, at all. Interestingly, even the MP of the German minority of Hungary does not have a language exam.

Who ‘speaks’ Latin in the Hungarian parliament?

Of course, this does not mean that they do not speak any foreign languages. For example, PM Viktor Orbán does not have a language exam but he studied in Oxford in the 80s with the help of a scholarship provided by a Soros foundation. Therefore, he wrote on his parliament page that he speaks C2 level English just like former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány. MP and state secretary, Szilárd Németh, obtained a conversational proficiency of Italian while Lajos Kósa a similar level of Russian and English. Interestingly, Speaker of the National Assembly, László Kövér or deputy PM Zsolt Semjén do not have a language exam, as well.

On the other end of the language exam scale is Democratic Coalition

MP Ágnes Vadai with a C1 level language exam of English and Spanish and a B2 level exam of French, Norwegian and Russian.

Some MPs speak rarely-known languages in Hungary. For example, Sándor F. Kovács from Fidesz speaks C2 level Kazakh while Socialist MP and deputy speaker of the National Assembly István Hiller has a C1 language exam of Latin. Furthermore, six MPs speak Esperanto while MP György Simonka from Fidesz speaks Russian, Slovak and Romanian on a conversational level.

Featured image: MTI

February 21, 2019

Karácsony wins left-wing mayoral preselection

Párbeszéd’s Gergely Karácsony won the preselection vote to determine the left-wing opposition’s candidate for mayor of Budapest, defeating the Socialist Party’s Csaba Horváth.

A total of 34,133 valid votes were cast over the course of the week-long ballot, Péter Szigeti, the psephologist asked to oversee the vote and former head of the National Election Committee, told a press conference on Sunday.

Karácsony received 27,598 votes to Horváth’s 6,535, Szigeti said.

The preselection had been organised jointly by the Socialist Party, the Democratic Coalition (DK), Párbeszéd and the Solidarity Movement.

In his victory speech, Karácsony said that the goal was now to take Budapest back from ruling Fidesz’s “viceroys” and give it back to the residents.

“This day has no loser, except Fidesz,” he said. The mayor of Budapest’s 14th district said the capital had scored a “historic” victory against Fidesz’s “divisive politics”.

He said today was also the day when the opposition united with the people against the politics of Fidesz.

Karácsony said that starting on Monday, the opposition would use the power of the people against incumbent Budapest Mayor István Tarlós in an effort to change the city.

He said the message of the preselection vote was that Budapest’s residents were thinking outside the confines of political parties, and more in terms of common goals. Karácsony said he and all of his allies should keep in mind that they are not looking for the opposition’s mayoral candidate or offering an opposition election programme, but rather looking for the candidate of the people of Budapest and shaping their election programme to serve the people’s interests.

He said the opposition would keep going until Fidesz only had one challenger left.

Congratulating Karácsony, Horváth said in his concession speech that the people of Budapest had chosen their flag bearer. He vowed to support Karácsony, saying that they were both aiming to “liberate” Budapest.

DK’s acting deputy leader Csaba Molnár said Budapesters knew that the incumbent mayor was “a viceroy appointed by the prime minister”. He said the opposition had to nominate a single mayoral candidate to have a shot at unseating Tarlos in the autumn.

Párbeszéd MP Olivio Kocsis-Cake said: “The numbers show that the preselection worked.” He said that whereas in Fidesz, positions were decided by a single person, “the democratic side” had conducted a democratic preselection vote.

Gergely Orsi, a member of the preselection committee, said the voting had been clean and fair.

The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance called the preselection “a huge failure”.

Lénárd Borbely, the mayor of Budapest’s 21st district for Fidesz, said the past elections had already proven that the opposition did not have a “credible face” it could nominate for Budapest mayor. “Now, they’ve finished the usual casting,” he told MTI. He said the preselection had failed to draw interest, arguing that some 2 percent of Budapest’s residents had taken part in it. Borbély said this meant that the left had trouble mobilising even its own voters.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/KarácsonyGergely

February 4, 2019

Preselection of left-wing mayoral candidate starts in Budapest

The preselection of the left-wing opposition candidate for mayor of Budapest started on Monday and will run through February 3.

The two candidates, Csaba Horváth of the Socialists and Gergely Karácsony of Párbeszéd, will compete during this week but on Sunday they will sign “an alliance for the future” with other parties, civilians and Budapest voters, the Socialists’ Budapest president Zsolt Molnár told reporters.

Current Budapest Mayor István Tarlós of the ruling Fidesz party has many supporters but “it is far from impossible to defeat him”, he said.

The municipal elections, especially the election of the Budapest mayor, scheduled for this autumn will be crucial because the opposition will have better chances in the 2022 parliamentary elections if it wins in Budapest this year, he added.

Molnár asked Budapest residents’ to support Horváth but added that after Sunday the Socialists will fully support whichever candidate wins the preselection.

Votes can be submitted for the candidates at 33 locations throughout Budapest until noon on Sunday.

January 28, 2019

Late-night demonstration held against chief prosecutor’s office in Budapest

Several hundred people demonstrated against the activities of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Budapest on Wednesday.

At the event organised in front of the chief prosecutor’s building, representatives of various opposition parties said that the office’s decision not to declare unlawful the actions of security guards at the headquarters of public broadcaster MTVA last month against opposition MPs who were protesting inside the building had

“decisively put Hungary on the path to dictatorship”.

The politicians representing the Democratic Coalition, the Liberal Party, the Socialist Party, Párbeszéd and the Momentum Movement said Hungary could only turn back from this path if the opposition parties, trade unions and civil groups show solidarity towards each other and unite.

Protestors carried national and EU flags and the flags of the various opposition parties could also be seen in the crowd.

After the demonstration, around a hundred protesters blocked traffic between Váci Road and Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Road for roughly half an hour.

Featured image: MTI

January 24, 2019