Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd Magyarországért)

Opposition parties blast Orbán’s opening address

Group leaders of Hungary’s opposition parties on Monday slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech opening the autumn session of parliament, accusing him of misrepresenting the Sargentini report approved in the European Parliament last week and of ignoring Hungary’s real problems.

Jobbik said Orbán had lost in Europe and was at a crossroads. Márton Gyöngyösi, the party’s group leader, added that “it might not be too late” for the prime minister to “back down”. As regards a European Union proposal for a standing corps for the bloc’s border agency, Gyöngyösi said Orbán had fought for years for a joint European border protection scheme and the EU’s proposal was “in no way about transferring the right to control the borders to mercenaries”.

According to the proposal, the border guards provided by the EU would be subject to the host country’s laws and report to its border guard commanders, Gyöngyösi said.

The Socialist Party said that with the approval of the Sargentini report, Orbán “has it on paper that he is a recidivist lawbreaker”. The report argued that the prime minister “serves his own interests instead of the common good and is enriching his own political elite,” group leader Bertalan Tóth said. “You are no longer Europe’s strongman … but Europe’s pariah” who governs against the will of the people, Tóth told Orbán.

The Democratic Coalition accused the government of “hiding behind the nation’s back” when insisting that the Sargentini report was drafted against Hungary.

Ferenc Gyurcsány, the party’s chairman and group leader, called Orbán’s argument that the report was not about his government but the country as a whole “dumb”, saying that though its title does refer to Hungary, the document itself contains 48 critical remarks about the Hungarian government, but none about the country as a whole. Gyurcsány accused the government of “creating a dictatorship” and called Orbán a dictator. He argued that the government was taking away people’s right to be informed and “financially crippling its opponents and using the justice system to punish them”.

Green LMP said the migration debate launched by Orbán was a “pseudo debate based on a genuine problem” which the government was using to “obscure reality”.

László Lóránt Keresztes, LMP’s group and co-leader, said Orbán was not interested in a solution to Europe’s migrant crisis, but rather in continuing to use it as a campaign talking point. He said there had been no genuine debate at the EU level about the causes of the migration crisis, adding that Orban was also one of the politicians who had failed to present any meaningful proposals for resolving it.

On the subject of the Sargentini report, Keresztes said his party had not backed the document because they considered it wrong to punish an entire country for its government’s mistakes.

Párbeszéd group leader Tímea Szabó dismissed the ruling party’s accusation that opposition politicians were traitors, and called Orbán traitor.

“You’re the one attacking Hungary and the Hungarian people,” she said, adding that “the report was critical only of the Hungarian government, not Hungarians.

She argued that it was not the people who were to blame for Hungary’s low pensions, “the persecution of homeless people, Europe’s shortest-term jobseekers’ allowance or the abolition of the science academy’s world-renowned research institute”. Szaóo insisted that Orbán only cared about “money, stealing and power” and “couldn’t care less about Hungary or the Hungarian people”.

Featured image: MTI

September 17, 2018

Opposition Párbeszéd, LMP demand hearings on govt residency bond scheme

The opposition Párbeszéd and LMP parties on Monday called for convening parliament’s national security committee in connection with recent reports on the government’s residency bond scheme.

Speaking to reporters, Richárd Barabás, a spokesman for Párbeszéd, cited a report by news portal 444.hu which said that influential Russian citizens, including politicians and the heads of state companies, had been granted permanent residence status in Hungary under the bond scheme.

Párbeszéd also demands that bond holders residing in Hungary should be banned from the country, Barabás said.

LMP called for convening parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee and hear officials of the national security services, the immigration office and the government.

The Democratic Coalition said it would turn to the European Commission over the bond scheme citing security concerns.

“It constitutes a national security risk that the government had allowed terrorists, criminals and spies to enter into Hungary’s and the EU’s territory,” Zsolt Greczy, the party’s group leader, told a press conference.

He said that “the Fidesz government’s scheme had benefitted the chief of Russian intelligence and his family members and one of the key figures of the Russian mafia”.

The Hungarian Liberal Party also called for convening the national security committee. Lawmaker Anett Bősz told a press conference that the bond scheme had allowed some 20,000 individuals to enter Europe including Russian intelligence officials and business people “of dubious background”.

The threshold for the residency bond purchase was set at 250,000 euros early in the scheme and raised to 300,000 euros later on.

Featured image: MTI/EPA

September 10, 2018

Opposition Párbeszéd calls on government to disclose BMW investment details

Opposition Párbeszéd on Wednesday called on the government to disclose the details of the investment agreement concluded with BMW.

The car manufacturing giant announced last week to build a plant in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, with an investment of around 300 billion forints (EUR 1bn) to create about 1,000 workplaces.

The government should disclose what funds from state coffers would be allocated to support the project, Párbeszéd group leader Tímea Szabó told a press conference.

It is likely, she insisted, that “wages at the plant will be paid by the Hungarian government, and so by Hungarian taxpayers, for the first five to six years”.

Szabó cited as an example Indian tyre maker Apollo Tyres’ investment in Gyöngyöshalász, in northern Hungary, which opened in April 2017. Apart from a substantial government grant, Apollo Tyres was also exempt from paying corporate tax, and so the government was stripped of all revenues from the project, she said.

Párbeszéd demands that the government should disclose whether BMW will pay corporate tax, employ Hungarians at the plant and guarantee work conditions and wages according to the German standard, Szabó said.

Growing real estate prices may also have an adverse effect on the area, she said.

Featured image: MTI

August 8, 2018

Opposition parties slam Orban’s Szeklerland speech

Hungary’s opposition parties on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s keynote speech at the Tusványos Summer University, saying it was a “declaration of war on Europe”.

At the 29th Bálványos Summer University, in central Romania, a long-standing cultural event for ethnic Hungarians, the prime minister said that every European country had the right to protect its Christian culture and the traditional family model, as well as the right to reject immigration, read more HERE.

Jobbik

Conservative Jobbik‘s spokesman told MTI that Orban’s speech showed that he prioritised his own European political ambitions over Hungary’s fortunes. Orbán “has indicated more than once” that he sees himself as a potential leader of Europe, party spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki said. Orbán, he added, was cynical to declare that western countries are not democratic.

It is Orbán who has dismantled freedom of speech and the press, as well as abolishing public institutions which are the bedrock of democracy, he insisted.

Several “allegedly independent institutions” are “stuffed with party soldiers”, he said.

Socialists

Socialist leader Bertalan Tóth said that the Christian democracy outlined by Orbán in Baile Tusnad was “far removed from Hungarian reality”. In a video uploaded to the party’s Facebook page, he said that tens of thousands of families faced eviction, health care was in a state of “devastation” and the situation of FX loan-holders was still unresolved. Furthermore,

Hungary’s public media “spouts propaganda” and entrepreneurs connected to Orbán are “fed public funds from the EU and Hungary”, Tóth said.

Orbán’s Fidesz party is not independent from the European elite but rather belongs to a party family provides the majority of officials to the European Commission and the European Parliament, he said. The Carpathian Basin cannot be rebuilt without the EU, Tóth said. Without the EU, “we cannot speak of central European development, an economic region or the cooperation of free states,” he said. Tóth called for a cooperative, socially engaged Europe that protects its borders and finds common solutions to challenges.

DK

Commenting on the speech, the spokesman of leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said Orban’s speech was a “declaration of war on Europe, Hungarians and freedom”. Orbán created a picture of a Europe torn by a political and cultural conflict between nation states and regions, Sandor Ronai told a press conference on Saturday. Voters in the European parliamentary elections in 2019 will choose between “a Europe that follows the worldview and nationalism of the 1930s or the united, strong European approach of [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel and [French President Emmanuel] Macron,” he said.

“We do not need less Europe, but more of it … If Hungary wants to live and prosper in peace, Orbán must go.”

Párbeszéd

The opposition Párbeszád party said in a statement that Orbán “only offered” Hungary isolation and division along cultural divisions instead of “openness to explore the world around us”. Richard Barabás said that Párbeszéd backed Fidesz’s goal to make Hungary prosper but the route the ruling party was taking was a bad one.

LMP

László Lóránt Keresztes, the co-leader of the green LMP party, said in a statement that the European Union’s “severe operational problems” have to be addressed. “What’s really at stake in the coming period” is whether Hungary can make changes that make the bloc more effective, Keresztes said. The migration crisis is one of the most serious of these problems, he said. But the government should also take steps against a strengthening Russian influence, he said. Orbán “continues to build an alternative reality where propaganda determines everything,” Keresztes said.

Before attempting to rebuild the Carpathian Basin, the government should solve problems such as the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian youth, he said. “This is the real national tragedy.”

Photo: MTI

July 29, 2018

POLL – Fidesz popularity at record high, Jobbik sliding

Fidesz is still touching a record high while the opposition Jobbik party’s polling fortunes are waning, according to the think-tank Nézőpont.

In a poll released on Tuesday, Nézőpont found that the ruling Fidesz alliance with the Christian Democrats had the support of 42 percent of the entire electorate, or around 3 million voters, in June.

The conservative Jobbik party captured the sympathy of 10 percent of the respondents, down a point since April.

László Toroczkai’s new radical party, Our Homeland Movement, managed to attract just a single percent of all voters.

The opposition Socialist Party’s alliance with Párbeszéd notched up 6 percent, the leftist Democratic Coalition 4 percent, green party LMP 3 percent, liberal Momentum 2 percent, and the satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party 1 percent.

Among committed voters, Fidesz would get 55 percent in an election held this Sunday, level with its showing in April.

Jobbik would receive 17 percent in this category. Fully 9 percent would vote for the Socialists and Párbeszéd, less than the 10 percent required for a joint list to get seats in parliament.

Support for DK increased by one point to 6 percent while backing for LMP went down to 5 percent, the threshold for a single party to get into parliament.

Momentum was preferred by 4 percent.

Nézőpont conducted personal interviews with 2,000 adults between 1 and 17 July.

Featured image: MTI

July 24, 2018

23rd Budapest Pride march held

The 23rd Budapest Pride march marking the end of Hungary’s month-long festival of the LGBTQ community was held on Saturday afternoon, with participants gathering near City Park and later moving across central Budapest without any significant incidents reported.

The march, led by a rainbow-decorated truck, proceeded along Andrassy Avenue, Nagymezo Street, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Road, Alkotmany Street, and ended at Kossuth Square in front of Parliament late in the afternoon.

Szilvia Nagy of the organising Rainbow Mission Foundation said at the start of the event that the march was a way of protesting against social exclusion and celebrating love and the diversity of the LGBTQ community.

The march was attended by NGOs, company representatives as well as members of the opposition Socialist Party, Párbeszéd, the satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party and Momentum, Nagy said.

Participants were greeted by counter-demonstrators at Kodály Körönd who held up a banner that read “Your queerness is disgusting”. Others revved their motorcycles to try to drown out the march.

Photo: MTI Photo: MTI

Another group of counter-protesters gathered at Oktogon. A few managed to breach the cordon protecting the marchers, but police corralled them into a gateway.

At Kossuth Square, Ádám Csikos said on behalf of the organisers that the state should grant same-sex couples the right to marry and raise children. He said he was proud that some 100 events were organised during the month-long Pride festival in Budapest and five other cities.

At the same time, Csikos voiced his frustration over what he called a lack of equal rights for LGBTQ people. “It’s not okay that a political regime forces its views onto citizens,” he said.

When participants at the front of the march reached Oktogon proceeding along Andrássy Avenue, the last ones were just passing Kodály Körönd — a distance of around 750m.

During the closing speeches at Kossuth Square, a European Union and a rainbow flag were hung from one of the windows of Parliament.

The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition had said in a statement that its MPs would greet the march by hanging Pride and EU flags from the windows of their offices.

Budapest Pride 2018, Photo: MTI

Socialist Party MP Ágnes Kunhalmi, the Liberal Party’s Anett Bosz and Parbeszed’s Bence Tordai, among others, were in attendance.

The Budapest police headquarters (BRFK) told MTI that officers had conducted ID checks but no other intervention was required.

Photo: MTi

July 8, 2018

Independent candidate for Budapest 8th district mayor to reject evictions, if elected

Péter Győri, an independent candidate running for mayor of Budapest’s 8th district, has vowed not to sign any home eviction orders linked to indebted households if he wins the election.

Győri, backed by the opposition Socialists, Democratic Coalition, LMP, Momentum, Párbeszéd and Hungarian Liberals and civil groups, is running against Botond Sára, deputy mayor of the district representing the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, in the July 8 ballot.

If Sara wins on Sunday, there will be “mass evictions” following the vote, Győri told reporters, adding that he knew of several families who had already packed their belongings.

Győri said

he knew of plans to sell 4,700 local council flats which are currently rented out to households some of which are poor.

Gábor Erőss, member of Párbeszed’s presidium and a district deputy, said that during Sára’s incumbency the local council had paid millions of forints to lawyers linked to Fidesz to arrange evictions.

“These lawyers are earning fortunes on the back of people in need,” he added.

Erőss said that the billions of forints Lőrinc Mészáros, a businessman linked to the Hungarian prime minister, had spent on building two equestrian halls could be put to better use by providing social housing for the needy.

A by-election will be held to replace Fidesz’s Máté Kocsis, who is giving up his mayoralty after his election to the national assembly in the April 8 general election. As we wrote on May, ruling Fidesz lawmakers have elected Máté Kocsis leader of their parliamentary group in a unanimous vote, read more HERE.

Photo: https://www.facebook.com/2018julius8/

July 5, 2018

Opposition parties suspect fraud surrounding upgrade of Budapest metro 3 trains

Two opposition parties are seeking clarification regarding the Russian renovation of trains for Budapest’s third metro line, saying they suspect fraud.

A municipal representative of the Democratic Coalition (DK) told MTI on Sunday that recent photos found on a Russian website and released by the Hungarian “For the Metro” NGO served as proof that the metro line was running new trains instead of ones that had been returned to Budapest after being reconditioned under contract by Metrowagonmash.

The photos taken this week show trains which had been due to be returned to Budapest after their upgrade by March this year parked in Moscow, Erzsébet Gy. Németh said.

She said DK suspected fraud in connection with the tender conducted by the Budapest municipal council, under which Metrowagonmash, the winner, had delivered to Budapest unused, but outdated, technically defective trains.

DK will file a criminal report over the matter, she added.

The Párbeszéd party on Sunday called for an investigation by a designated municipal committee into the affair.

Márta V Naszályi, a Budapest deputy of the party, told a press conference that the Budapest municipality would be guilty of customs fraud if it had indeed purchased new trains instead of going through with the originally contracted renovations.

Budapest transport company BKV rejected DK’s claims in connection with the upgrade, insisting that the Russian side had delivered to Budapest all 37 carriages covered in their contract.

The Russian partner company carried out a thorough inspection of each carriage and replaced components where it was necessary, Tibor Bolla, BKV’s CEO, told MTI in a statement. It added that all of the carriages have already received an operating permit.

June 25, 2018

Opposition initiates 90 pc tax on ‘off-shore’ residency bond sellers

The opposition Párbeszéd party will initiate levying a 90 percent special tax on revenues generated by “off-shore” companies on the sales of the government’s residency bonds, the party’s spokesman said on Saturday.

The five agents licensed to sell residency bonds under the government’s scheme have “robbed the state” of 17.5 billion forints (EUR 53.8m) they had generated in unpaid taxes on their off-shore businesses, Richárd Barabás told a press conference, adding that those involved in these businesses should be identified and brought to justice.

Under the scheme running from the summer of 2013 until March 2017, foreign nationals who bought securities from a licensed agent backed by the residency bonds could apply in an accelerated procedure for permanent residency in Hungary. The threshold for the residency bond purchase was set at 250,000 euros early in the scheme and raised to 300,000 euros later on.

An economy ministry official said in October last year that the state of Hungary had raised 517 billion forints through the scheme.

Barabás said Parbeszéd had been the first party to expose that the residency bond scheme had served “nothing but the accumulation of hefty fortunes by business owners linked to then cabinet office chief Antal Rogán’s friends”. Running the scheme at that time had completely contradicted the migration policy the government represented in public, the spokesman said.

He welcomed the termination of the scheme, but insisted that by operating the scheme it was in fact the Fidesz-led government that “had organised the settlement of foreigners” in Hungary, for which reason the recently announced new levy for supporting immigration should be imposed on them.

Featured image: Balázs Béli

June 24, 2018

Hungary commemorates martyred 1956 PM Imre Nagy

President János Áder laid flowers of commemoration at the tomb of Imre Nagy, Hungary’s former prime minister and other martyrs of the communist retaliation after the failed anti-Soviet revolt of 1956, at the Rákoskeresztúr cemetery on Saturday.

Nagy, Hungary’s legitimate head of government in 1956, was executed on this day 60 years ago. Pál Maléter, defence minister in 1956, journalist Miklós Gimes, and József Szilágyi, the head of the prime minister’s secretariat, were also executed. Géza Losonczy, minister of state at the time, died in prison in 1957.

Nagy and the other martyrs, buried in unmarked graves after their death, were reburied on June 16, 1989.

President Áder 1956 — President Áder commemorates martyred 1956 PM Imre Nagy

1956 Imre Nagy commemoration 1956 — Photo: MTI

Socialists, Párbeszéd commemorate martyred 1956 PM

Leaders of the opposition Socialist and Párbeszéd parties commemorated Nagy marking the 60th anniversary of his execution.

Socialist board head István Hiller and Párbeszéd co-leader Gergely Karácsony laid wreaths at the martyred prime minister’s monument in central Budapest.

Karácsony, in his address, referred to the “re-awakening forces of tyranny” and said that “the republic and freedom must again be defended against those powers”. He accused ruling Fidesz of plans to remove Nagy’s statue from the vicinity of Parliament and said that it would be equal to “removing his spirit”.

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Head of the Prime Minister’s Office opens conference on post-1956 trials

Gergely Gulyás, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, on yesterday opened a conference presenting a new database of trials that took place after Hungary’s failed anti-Soviet uprising of 1956, in Budapest.

“We require the knowledge of how the dictatorship functioned and must know who and on what basis made decisions about people’s lives,” Gulyás said in his opening address.

“Though we are often dissatisfied with the situation of the rule of law, we must appreciate the progress that has been made in this area since Hungary’s change of regime,” he said.

The independence of the judiciary must not be harmed in any way, Gulyás added.

The database was compiled by the National Remembrance Committee.

As its first step in documenting the post-1956 retaliations, the committee collaborated with the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in publishing the details of 231 people sentenced to death, several hundred investigators, prosecutors and judges on the website perek56.hu.

Photo: MTI

June 16, 2018

Parliamentary parties consult on constitutional amendment, ‘Stop Soros’ bill

The ruling alliance of Fidesz and the Christian Democrats and the opposition LMP and Párbeszéd parties on Monday met to discuss the government’s constitutional amendment proposal and the “Stop Soros” bill currently before parliament.

Speaking to public news channel M1 after the talks, Fidesz lawmaker György Balla called the meeting “a sad experience”, saying that the opposition parties “haven’t learned anything, and it is perfectly clear that they still support illegal migration”. Balla said the opposition’s only proposed changes to the bills would prevent the organisation of illegal migration from being written into the criminal code or make it impossible from a procedural standpoint.

He said the opposition was “looking for excuses, but their true intention is still to support [US financier] George Soros’s NGOs”, instead of taking action against illegal migration.

Asked about the timetable for the vote on the bills, Balla said it was certain that parliament will vote on them before the summer recess.

Párbeszéd MP Olivio Kocsis-Cake said his party had proposed at the talks that parliament should not vote on the bills until the meaning behind terms such as “aiding” and “organising” is clarified in the context of illegal migration. He said Párbeszéd prioritises the safety of migrants and their humane treatment, and agrees with the premise that mass illegal migration and human smuggling should be stopped. But the bills before parliament would not adequately combat human smuggling in Hungary, Kocsis-Cake insisted. Párbeszéd still believes that the aim of the bills is to intimidate civil organisations that help refugees, he added.

LMP’s László Lóránt Keresztes said the aim of the bills was not what they purported to be, namely the creation of a clearer legal situation in Hungary with a view to strengthening the country’s security.

He underlined LMP’s belief in the importance of stopping illegal migration and that immigration policy should be a national competency.

People’s patriotic Jobbik, the Socialist Party and the Democratic Coalition were absent from the talks.

Featured image: MTI

June 11, 2018

Opposition parties demand higher wages for teachers

The opposition LMP and Párbeszéd parties on Sunday demanded big salary increases for teachers.

LMP spokesman Máté Kanász-Nagy, speaking at a press conference marking national teachers’ day, proposed that career models should offer teachers “salaries equal to those of the government’s state secretaries”. He went on to say that the education system was much too centralised and it “would have long collapsed if it weren’t for teachers”.

LMP wants high quality, modern and free education, the spokesman said, adding that improving conditions for teachers was crucial to achieving these aims.

He insisted that “the freedom of education must be restored”; teachers should have the right to select textbooks, to have some freedom to deviate from the national curriculum, and have a say when their headmasters are appointed.

Párbeszéd spokesman Richárd Barabás spoke at another press conference and called for an “immediate and radical” pay rise. He argued that better conditions for teachers was a prerequisite to developing education in the 21st century.

Párbeszéd proposes that schools should employ more assistant teachers and psychologists, reduce the size of classes and reduce red tape, as well as offer teachers a sabbatical year every 7-8 years.

Barabás also criticised Miklós Kasler, the new education minister, whom he quoted as proposing that “the information we pour into children’s heads is still not enough”. Rather than making children “repeat dogmatic answers”, Barabás said, they should be given the skills of critical thinking.

Featured image: MTI

June 3, 2018

Kocsis-Cake takes over Karácsony’s parliament seat

Parbeszed party executive Olivio Kocsis-Cake is to take over Gergely Karácsony’s parliamentary mandate, as the party co-leader wants to focus on the upcoming local election and his work as the mayor of Budapest’s district 14, leaders of the party told a press conference held after the party assembly on Sunday.

Karácsony said that the assembly focused on two issues, a strategic discussion on the party’s further plans in light of April’s general election and the reassignment of his mandate. The assembly has reached no decision in the former but they stick to their original goals, he said.

Leftist politics in Hungary should be renewed and alliances forged to topple the Orbán government, he said.

Kocsis-Cake said that he is looking forward to working in parliament and wants to put Párbeszéd’s innovative proposals into practice. Equality, social issues, EU affairs and policies regarding ethnic Hungarians will also be on his agenda, he said.

“I see Párbeszéd as a catalyst of an opposition cooperation capable of toppling the government in 2022. I want to work on that,” he said.

Party co-leader Tímea Szabó said that the party is working on creating social democracy in parliament. They want to show a leftist alternative that “can free people from oppression”, she said. “We have no interest in creating divides, in discrimination or hate-mongering. We want solidarity, cooperation and to work together,” she said.

May 28, 2018

Liberal MP to quit Párbeszéd parliamentary group

Anett Bősz, a member of the Liberal Party who joined Párbeszéd’s parliamentary group, on Friday announced that she would leave the group and continue as an independent.

House regulations stipulate that a minimum of five MPs are needed to form a parliamentary group. With Bősz’s exit, Párbeszéd’s group will be down to four, and could thereby be disbanded, stripping its members of committee memberships and funding.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Bősz said that

their “political allies have in the past weeks given clear signs of breaching the written and oral agreements with the Liberal party.”

In the past two weeks the allied parties have made it clear that they do not intend to truly cooperate with the Liberals, she said.

Deputy Liberal leader Ádám Sermer said their “alleged partners” have given no guarantees to allow Bősz to represent the liberal agenda in the group. He added, however, that the Liberals still intend to cooperate with the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance on many counts.

Commenting on the announcement, Párbeszéd group leader Tímea Szabó said that the future of the parliamentary group after Bősz’s exit is “immaterial”. The Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance will “continue to fight to dismantle the Orbán regime”, she said.

Socialist spokesman Bertalan Tóth said that the party “cannot be blackmailed” and will make allowances for money.

Photo: MTi

May 19, 2018

Socialist, Párbeszéd lawmakers take oath at ‘monument of republic’

The elected lawmakers of the opposition Socialist and Párbeszéd parties took their oaths at the Monument of the Republic of Hungary on Tuesday, ahead of the inaugural session of parliament.

Speaking at the monument erected in Budapest’s 13th district, Párbeszéd co-leader Gergely Karácsony said that they would “go to parliament to fight” and ask the government on a daily basis what measures it has taken “to make Hungary once again a shared home of equal and free citizens”.

“We wish to represent the tormented, the humiliated, and put the questions the man in the street would ask to the prime minister and his government,” Karácsony said.

Bertalan Tóth, Socialist parliamentary group leader and head of the alliance of the two parties’ parliamentary groups, said they wanted to create the “representation of the majority” in parliament.

“We want to represent … the whole Hungarian nation,” he said.

Tóth said the Hungarian republic was a thing of the past. If it still existed, the election could not have been influenced by “systemic manipulation”, he said.

The Stone of the Republic of Hungary monument was erected by the Socialists in 2011 upon the approval of the basic law, which changed the country’s official name to Hungary.

Featured image: MTI

May 8, 2018

Opposition parties hold ‘constructive’ consultations on cooperation

Opposition party representatives said consultations on Wednesday for cooperation in upcoming by-elections were “constructive and held amid a good atmosphere”.

Socialist representative in Budapest, Csaba Horváth, who initiated the meeting, said the participants were in agreement that further consultations will be held prior to all by-elections.

The aim is to run a single opposition candidate against the ruling Fidesz candidate, he added.

If the parties are unable to agree on a single candidate because there is more than one potential candidate with a good chance of being elected then a pre-selection procedure could be held, Horváth said. How this should happen is a work in progress and the by-elections of the upcoming period will help in finding a solution, he added.

Green opposition LMP’s representative at the talks, Péter Ungár, also said the meeting was constructive but he declined to reveal details.

LMP will take into consideration the proposals presented, and there is “considerable hope” that an agreement can be reached for the next upcoming by-election, he added.

Opposition Párbeszéd board member Márta V. Naszályi said the consultations gave reason for hope, and Hungarian Liberal Party’s Viktor Szabadai said cooperation was clearly necessary. Momentum board member Tamás Soproni said talks have already started on cooperation for the mayoral by-election in Budapest’s 8th district and he was hopeful a solution would be found.

Featured image: MTI

May 2, 2018

Socialists, Párbeszéd to form separate parliamentary groups

The opposition Socialist Party and Párbeszéd will form separate groups in the next parliament but will operate as a parliamentary alliance, leaders of the two parties said on Saturday.

The three Párbeszéd (Dialogue for Hungary) politicians, Gergely Karácsony, Tímea Szabó and Bence Tordai, will be joined by Anett Bősz of the Liberal Party and Sándor Burány, who will remain a member of the Socialist Party.

Karácsony, Párbeszéd’s leader and the opposition alliance’s former prime ministerial candidate, told a press conference during a break in a meeting of the Socialist Party’s national board, that the two parties intend to continue their cooperation in separate parliamentary groups but will work as a single alliance.

Assessing the April 8 general election, Karácsony said faith and hope should be given to people who believe in the ideal of social democracy.

He said voters opting for change, however, would have preferred the parties to form a wider alliance than they ended up doing.

The three months the two parties had to campaign together were not enough, he said. But the next four years would leave enough time to form wider alliances and make a breakthrough, he added.

Karácsony said the party groups would set up a joint coordination body headed by the current group leader of the Socialists.

Bertalan Tóth, the Socialists’ group leader, said the two groups will sign an agreement on their parliamentary alliance and “coordinate closely” on their work in parliament. They will meet to conclude the agreement on Monday, he said, adding that the coordination body will be responsible for common policy-making.

They will agree on a common stance regarding specific issues and parliamentary business in advance of voting, he added.

The other opposition parties will also make proposals to seek uniformity on certain issues, he said, adding that a proposal regarding what form this takes, such as an opposition roundtable, will be made next week.

István Hiller, head of the Socialist Party’s national board, said the board on Saturday “held its most important session and made its most important decisions since 1989”, approving fundamental changes to the party. He announced that a Socialist congress will be held on June 17.

Asked which opposition parties the alliance would cooperate with, Karacsony said they considered all democratic opposition parties as allies. Different parties whose world views are similar should show, by example, their ability to act together to represent their values.

He said pre-election pacts were only a technique and the true goal would be to find the best candidate in a democratic debate involving local communities. In the recent election, they were probably wrong not to have employed this method, he said.

Photo: MTI

April 21, 2018

Former PM candidate Karácsony: Socialists-Párbeszéd to form parliament group headed by Socialist lawmaker Tóth

The Socialists-Párbeszéd alliance is forming a parliamentary group to be headed by Socialist lawmaker Bertalan Tóth, Gergely Karácsony, the opposition alliance’s former prime ministerial candidate, told journalists on Wednesday after attending a meeting of Socialist-Párbeszéd elected MPs.

Karácsony, Párbeszéd’s co-leader, said the joint political will to work for change represented in the election campaign would carry on in parliament.

Tóth said the alliance would represent the voters who backed Socialists-Párbeszéd and the 2.5 million people who wanted change.

The alliance, he vowed, will reveal all information concerning the “mafia state” and make use of their parliamentary rights to protect any whistleblowers.

Tóth was asked about the preparatory talks for the inaugural session of the new parliament. Talks are scheduled to begin next week, he said. Once the party alliance receives the ruling parties’ offer in connection with the distribution of parliamentary committee seats, it will decide whether or not to accept it or even deal with the matter, Tóth said. Socialists-Párbeszéd will then also decide if it will discuss the offer with the other opposition parties, he added.

Tóth said that if the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance “sticks to its arrogant style” in parliament and “continues to abuse its power”, the opposition parties would have to discuss whether they even want to take part in the work of parliament. He said a boycott of parliament would only make sense if all opposition parties also agreed to it.

featured image: MTI

April 19, 2018