The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat party alliance won a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s next parliament, according to the final result of the April 8 general election published in the early hours of Sunday.
Mailed votes counted, Fidesz wins by landslide
An overwhelming majority of voters with no permanent residence in Hungary cast their ballots for the list of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance in last Sunday’s general election, the National Election Office (NVI) said.
More than 378,000 Hungarian citizens living outside of the country’s borders registered for the election, and more than 224,000 cast a valid vote.
Under Hungary’s election law, Hungarian citizens with no permanent residence in the country may cast a single vote for a national party list.
All votes counted
The ruling Fidesz-KDNP alliance will have altogether 133 seats in the 199-member National Assembly, followed by the Jobbik with 26 seats and the Socialist-Párbeszéd electoral alliance with 20 seats. The leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) will send nine deputies to the parliament, and the green LMP eight. Együtt and the ethnic German minority will be represented by a single lawmaker. An independent candidate has also made it to parliament.
Out of the 106 individual constituencies, 91 were secured by Fidesz-KDNP, eight by the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance and three by DK. Jobbik, LMP, Együtt and an independent candidate each won a single individual constituency.
Ninety-three mandates were distributed among national party lists. Fidesz-KDNP won 42 seats, Jobbik 25, the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance 12, LMP 7, DK 6 and the German minority one.
The election results may still be appealed.
Tens of thousands against Orbán – Demonstration in Budapest
As we wrote yesterday, demonstrators dissatisfied with last week’s general election results protested in Budapest on Saturday afternoon, calling for a new “honest” election. Read more details HERE.
No matter the size of Fidesz’s mandate, the ruling party is not authorised to intimidate its citizens, Gergely Karácsony, former PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, said on Thursday in reaction to business weekly Figyelő’s list of people whom it called “George Soros’s mercenaries”.
Figyelő “has stupidly listed citizens who do their jobs as members of civil groups, aren’t the enemies of anyone, except maybe poverty, corruption and riding roughshod over democracy”, Karácsony told a news conference.
He said anyone who saw such people as enemies proved that their real enemy was the “the desire of citizens to make the country better”.
Karácsony said that in the run-up to Hungary’s general election, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had threatened the people and political parties who wanted change and had “talked about the 2,000 enemies of the Orbán regime“.
He said the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance would use any political means it could to “put an end to the politics of intimidation“.
The former PM candidate called it a “strange twist of history” that the list had been published in a magazine owned by Maria Schmidt, director of the House of Terror Museum. That museum was established to present the horrors of the 20th century so nobody in Hungary should ever again have to be afraid of being on a government list, Karácsony said.
On another subject, Socialist Party group leader Bertalan Tóth told the same news conference that there were “many signs of Fidesz having systemically manipulated the outcome of the election”. He said these included the current election rules, the registration of so-called “bogus parties”, the changes made in the ownership structures of media companies and the registration of voters with “fictitious addresses”.
As a result of the changes made to the election rules, Fidesz will have a two-thirds majority in parliament “while only one-third of voters voted for them”, he said.
Tóth accused the National Election Office (NVI) of “hacking” the election on Sunday, noting that the NVI had to revert to an older version of its website after its current one crashed in the morning. Running the older website had increased security risks, he said.
Outgoing head of the opposition Socialist Party, Gyula Molnár, said in an interview on Wednesday that his party and Párbeszéd, its electoral ally, should work together as a parliamentary group in the future.
Confirming that he would not bid for the leadership at the party’s June 16 congress, Molnár also told commercial broadcaster Inforadio that the sole liberal to win a seat, Anett Bosz, would join the Socialist benches, and it was possible she may become a deputy group leader.
He said Gergely Karácsony, the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate, planned to take up his seat for 30 days before relinquishing it due to his mayoral role in a Budapest district which would conflict with his work as a lawmaker. Márta V. Naszály comes after Karácsony on Párbeszéd’s national list but the matter of who replaces him would be an internal matter for the smaller party.
Karácsony had enhanced their joint election campaign’s recognition and acceptance, he added.
Molnár insisted they had laid the foundations for an alliance of change, a movement that could break the partisan framework and appeal to villagers and intellectuals alike.
He refused to accept the electoral opposition alliance’s responsibility for the result of the election, slamming the Democratic Coalition and green party LMP and others for only grudging cooperation and therefore sowing confusion among voters. Everyone, he added, had overestimated Jobbik’s ability to provide strong opposition in rural areas.
Hungary’s incumbent Fidesz-led alliance, based on preliminary results with 95.1 percent of the votes counted, secured a sweeping victory in Sunday’s election, and was on course to win 133 seats in the 199-seat parliament, which would hand it a two-thirds majority. Meanwhile, the nationalist Jobbik party reaffirmed its standing as the country’s main opposition force.
“We’ve secured a historic victory, and created the possibility to protect Hungary,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told cheering supporters.
“We’ve won,” Orbán declared in his victory speech, adding that the high turnout had dispelled all doubts of this. “We have a big battle behind us,” he said.
Having pinned his hopes on turning the radical nationalist party into a moderate force, Gábor Vona announced his resignation as leader of the Jobbik party. This was followed by a string of resignations from opposition officials.
Photo: MTI
The Socialist Party’s national board has tendered its resignation in light of the result of Hungary’s general election, Gyula Molnár, the party’s leader, announced. Molnár said the party acknowledged the will of the voters and considered themselves responsible for the outcome of the election.
Photo: MTI
The small opposition Együtt party acknowledged the outcome of the election and said the party’s board will resign. Együtt leader Péter Juhász added that he was “disappointed” by the opposition’s performance. Együtt failed to secure 5 percent of the votes cast on national lists, thus failing to make it into parliament.
Photo: MTI
Meanwhile, the leader of Momentum Movement, András Fekete-Győr, said: “We cannot congratulate Fidesz; we cannot congratulate Viktor Orbán.”
He insisted that the prime minister and the ruling party had “committed political crimes” in Hungary over the past eight, and especially in the last four years. “He has brought fear into the hearts of people who are scared.” Momentum also failed to pass the 5 percent threshold for seats in parliament.
Photo: MTI
Overwhelming support for Fidesz, especially in the countryside, dashed opposition hopes that the unusually high turnout would increase their chances of knocking back the ruling alliance’s strong majority.
Jobbik secured 26 seats, the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance 20 seats, the Democratic Coalition 9 seats, green party LMP 8 and Együtt 1 seat. An independent won a single seat and the representative of the German minority one seat.
In his speech, Orbán said Hungary was not yet where it wants to be, but “has embarked down its chosen path”. “We will go down this path together,” he pledged. Orban thanked voters for “standing by us over the years”. He also expressed his gratitude to Hungarians beyond the border who had voted in the election and “helped protect the motherland”.
Orbán further thanked Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, and Mateusz Morawiecki, his Polish counterpart, for their support.
Photo: MTI
The result was “a vindication of the government’s measures over the past eight years and sends a clear message to Brussels,” Csaba Fodor, an analyst of Nézőpont Institute, told public Kossuth Radio.
Political analyst Zoltán Kiszelly said the projection that a high turnout would work in favour of the opposition had proved wrong.
The projection that Budapest would decide the election outcome was also mistaken because it appeared that cities and villages beyond the capital decided the outcome. Whereas the opposition parties employed novel tactics, this turned out to be in vain, he said.
Nézőpont analyst Csaba Fodor said Jobbik had lost many of its radical nationalist voters, and it was possible the party would fall into serious “disintegration”. Comments by Gergely Karácsony, the prime ministerial candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd party, suggested that a search for scapegoats had started on the left, while Ferenc Gyurcsány, the leader of the Democratic Coalition, “took a jab at” his opponents by fulfilling his objective of having an independent group in parliament.
Head of the Századvég Foundation, Tamás Lánczi, told news channel M1 that the election outcome “will turn almost all opposition parties to ruin”. Opposition party leaders have been tendering their resignations in succession and “this is only the start of a crisis that is likely to deepen.”
Large internecine fights are starting within the opposition parties and they “will not be able to stay on their feet after such a serious defeat,” he said.
Lánczi added that voters had expressed their wish that it should be a Fidesz-led government that represents Hungary’s interests in the “great battles” that are likely to come.
Nézőpont Institute leader Ágoston Sámuel Mraz said the Socialists, already in trouble, had now ended up with a “huge crisis”. The speeches that followed the announcement of the election results showed that they had not been prepared for defeat, he added.
Hungary’s 2018 election, resulting in a third consecutive term for Fidesz, “is unique in central Europe…” Mraz said. He added that there would be a great many conflicts in the upcoming period in areas covering European Union funds, migration and NGOs financed from abroad.
Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the Democratic Coalition (DK), said after Fidesz’s resounding victory that the election had brought about a defeat for a “European, open Hungary”. He said he had been “more optimistic” early in the evening but now “the only open question is whether Fidesz will secure a two-thirds majority” after all votes have been counted.
An “unbridled” Fidesz with a two-thirds majority would continue to pursue a policy of “unbounded aggression and inhumanity”, he said, adding, however, that he was pleased DK had managed to secure an independent group in parliament for the first time and that it had doubled the number of its seats.
Photo: MTI
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, said in reaction to the results that the Hungarian left “must be rebuilt from the ground up”. Karácsony said his alliance had hoped that the high turnout would help those who wanted change. But seeing the results, “it has become evident” that the government’s supporters had turned out in greater numbers than those who wanted change.
He said it was “difficult” to congratulate the Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance, “not because we are petty but because we know how many lies and how excessive a media advantage” went into Fidesz’s victory, as well as “how many changes to the electoral law”. He did congratulate Fidesz, however, saying that “perhaps by doing so this will get us closer to being able to live in a normal country”.
Leaders of Hungary’s opposition parties cast their votes in Hungary’s general election on Sunday and welcomed the high turnout of voters at the polls.
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd party alliance, voted in Budapest’s 14th district, and said that the high turnout was a “sign of encouragement” to those that wanted to see a different government. He said he was convinced that people wanting change were in majority but “the question was if they would turn up to vote”. He added that turnout might be as high as over 70 percent at the end of the day.
Gábor Vona, the head of radical nationalist Jobbik, told journalists after casting his ballot in Gyöngyös, his home town, that Sunday’s ballot “will decide Hungary’s future for at least the next two generations”.
“At stake at today’s ballot is whether or not Hungary will become a country of emigrants”, he said.
Commenting on the already high turnout, Vona said it gave hope for a change in government and encouraged Hungarians to go to the polls. He said Jobbik would be willing to cooperate with LMP, Momentum and “new parties” for building a “21st century Hungary”.
Democratic Coalition (DK) leader Ferenc Gyurcsány said he trusted in an opposition victory in light of the turnout figures. He said he hoped the opposition “will be busy making preparations for a new government from Monday on”.
After casting his ballot in Budapest’s 2nd district, Gyurcsány said ruling Fidesz was likely to garner fewer votes than suggested in the polls; with less than 40 percent Fidesz will become a minority”. “It is difficult to tell if they could secure a parliamentary majority once, in the political sense, they are minority,” Gyurcsány said and added that he considered the current electoral system “not legitimate”.
The PM candidate of the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance hailed the high turnout at Hungary’s general election, saying it indicated serious criticism of the “Orbán regime” and President János Áder.
Speaking at a press conference in Budapest, Gergely Karácsony called on Hungarians to go to the polls and cast their votes.
Low turnout will benefit ruling Fidesz, whereas a high turnout will benefit those who want a change in government,
he said, adding that Fidesz had been making its last “desperate efforts” to mobilise its supporters.
Karácsony called on Áder to refrain from “even trying” to entrust Viktor Orbán to form Hungary’s next government should the incumbent prime minister “lose his parliamentary majority” in Sunday’s election.
“We know well that none of the opposition parties would be willing to govern in alliance with this Fidesz gang,” he said.
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd parties, presented priorities of his party alliance’s “100-day programme” at a press conference on Saturday.
Karácsony said the planned measures would “redirect Hungary to Europe and help build a fairer, more democratic and liveable new republic in which all citizens are equal”.
Among the planned moves, Karacsony mentioned restoring the institutions of social dialogue. He argued that successful government required discussion with affected parties before making decisions in any area. He also pledged starting talks with forex debtors and with all those who were “made losers” during the past two government cycles.
The Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, if elected into power, would launch a child protection programme and increase family subsidies, Karácsony said. The alliance’s government would join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, set up the office’s national counterpart, and ensure full transparency of public data, he added.
The alliance would immediately terminate the Hungary-Russia agreement concerning the Paks nuclear upgrade project and launch a social dialogue concerning Hungary’s energy policy, Karácsony said.
Concerning health, Karácsony said that “instant” steps were needed, adding that his government would “revive” emergency care, reduce waiting lists, and ensure a 50 percent wage hike to nurses.
As for education, he said that a Socialist-Párbeszéd government would “reintroduce the freedom of curriculum” under which “each teacher would be allowed to use the textbook he finds best”. He added that places in free higher education would be increased as of September this year and student loan debts would be forgiven.
Among further measures, Karácsony said that minimum wages would be made exempt to tax, minimum pensions would be doubled and 13th month pensions reintroduced.
If the Socialists and Párbeszéd win the election, they will immediately suspend payment of EU funds to bidders because “the incumbent government has not channelled those funds to the right destinations,” Karácsony said the system would be reviewed and his government would put out new tenders “to get the funds as close to the people as possible”.
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, on Friday compared Hungary’s current election campaign to the period of Hungary’s transition to democracy in 1989.
“This election brings back the spirit of 1989,” Karácsony said after talks with Udo Bullmann, group leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. He argued that Hungary back then, too, was “in search of a new future after having torn down an autocracy”.
Just like after 1989, Hungary once again faces the task of building “a shared homeland” in which Europeanness “is not just a lofty idea but an everyday reality”,
Karácsony said. He vowed that as prime minister, his first act would be to restore the Hungarian government’s honour in Europe.
Bullmann talked about, among other things, European Union funds, saying that they served to better the living conditions of the Hungarian people. He said EU funds must not be used for self-enrichment.
The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance is likely to win Sunday’s general election with 43 percent of the vote, giving it between 112 and 123 out of 199 seats in parliament, according to a fresh pre-election forecast by the Nézőpont Institute.
In Nézőpont’s forecast, Jobbik is seen coming in second with 22 percent of the vote, followed by the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance with 11 percent and the Democratic Coalition (DK) and LMP with 8 percent each. The opposition Momentum Movement, the satirical Two-Tailed Dog party and opposition Együtt are seen garnering 3 percent, 2 percent and 1 percent of the vote, respectively, all below the 5 percent parliamentary threshold.
Nézőpont projected a turnout of 65 percent.
Though the Fidesz-ChristDem alliance is unlikely to win a two-thirds majority, it is expected to retain a stable majority.
Nézőpont’s model forecasts between 36 and 42 parliamentary seats for Jobbik, 19-20 for the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, 11-13 for DK and 6-8 for LMP. It also sees three further candidates supported by the left-wing parties winning seats. The German national minority is also expected to send one representative to parliament.
Of its total number of seats, Fidesz-KDNP is expected to win between 74 and 85 mandates in individual constituencies. Jobbik is seen winning 7-13 electoral districts, while the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance is projected to win 8-10. DK is seen winning 3-5 districts and LMP no more than 1 district. A maximum of three more candidates supported by the leftist parties are forecast to win their individual constituencies.
Fidesz-KDNP is projected to win 38 seats from the votes cast for national lists, followed by Jobbik with 29, Socialists-Párbeszéd with 10-11, DK with 8 and LMP with 6-7 seats.
In its calculation of seats won from national lists, Nézőpont took into consideration phone and online polling data, election history, party preferences by undeclared voters and the campaign’s ability to mobilise voters.
The calculation of seats won in individual constituencies took into account the results of the 2014 electoral district races, the projected turnout, the forecast of votes cast for national party and minority lists, and the projected number of mailed votes.
Leaders of six opposition parties, attending a recent public debate, agreed that the incumbent Fidesz-Christian Democrat government can be replaced after the April 8 general election.
LMP leader Bernadett Szél said that if the opposition wins the ballot, a more just, democratic election should be called as soon as possible. Leaders of the Socialist-Párbeszéd electoral alliance, the Democratic Coalition (DK), LMP, Együtt and Momentum, in turn, said they would rather favour to see a coalition government, based on compromises.
The debate, held in Budapest late on Wednesday, was organised by the Válasszunk! 2018 (Let’s vote! 2018 – V18) group. Former foreign minister and EU commissioner Péter Balázs, who is heading the group, said ruling Fidesz and radical nationalist Jobbik had not accepted their invitation.
Gergely Karácsony, the Socialist-Párbeszéd PM candidate, said it would have been more fortunate if the debate had taken place a year ago, and the “democratic opposition” could now face Fidesz in unity.
“We should have made a joint offer to the nation,” he said.
Szél, LMP’s PM candidate, said Fidesz had failed, with a majority of Hungarian voters wishing to see a change in government. She said LMP had sought full-scale cooperation on the opposition side but met with harsh resistance.
DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsány said that most voters “had become familiar with the nature of the current electoral system”. Now it is up to the opposition parties to enforce the majority’s will to replace the government, he said.
Együtt board leader Viktor Szigetvári said the general mood favours “a change in regime”, and welcomed recent shifts towards broader cooperation on the opposition side.
Momentum leader András Fekete-Győr said their party had been born from a general dissatisfaction with the corrupt government and the squabbling opposition.
“By now, however, we have become ready for compromises because our generation cannot live for another four years under the current regime,” he said.
They agreed that the incumbent government has neglected education and health care, and pledged to significantly increase central spending on both areas including wage hikes.
The opposition leaders agreed that poverty has increased over the past eight years of Fidesz’s rule and pledged to reverse the trend by creating jobs, redesigning the fostered work scheme and significantly hiking family allowances.
They also agreed on the need to investigate and prosecute corruption cases “linked to the government”. Karácsony repeated Socialist-Párbeszéd’s pledge to set up an anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, whereas Gyurcsány called for removing the chief public prosecutor from his office. Szigetvári vowed “to nationalise the private assets” of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and businessman Lőrinc Mészáros linked to him.
Szél said the only party “standing clean” of any support by an oligarch was LMP.
She pledged to clear cases and punish perpetrators under a government that is elected in “a truly democratic method”.
“Power must not be thrown away just like a hot potato”, Karácsony said, adding that if elected to power, he would pursue as prime minister a policy seeking consensus.
“We are destined to work in coalition”, Gyurcsány said, adding that if the opposition wins the election, coalition talks must be led by the political force receiving the largest number of votes.
Gyurcsány stressed the need to refrain from charges concerning oligarchs standing behind the opposition parties as this attitude “is eroding public trust in us”.
Szigetvári also rejected the charge. He said that the democratic opposition could gain majority even without Jobbik.
The opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd, Democratic Coalition (DK) and Együtt parties have agreed to withdraw candidates in some constituencies in favour of nominees with the best chances to win.
Under the agreement, announced on Wednesday, the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance would withdraw their candidate in a Budapest constituency while DK in another constituency to support Együtt’s nominees.
Együtt will withdraw their candidates in three districts in Budapest, as well as in another three constituencies in the provinces in support of the Socialists. Együtt’s candidates in three Budapest districts and in two in the provinces will step down to help DK.
At the press conference, the candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd parties for downtown Budapest also announced her unilateral resignation in favour of LMP’s nominee.
Együtt head Péter Juhász said at the press conference that his party had “done everything” to ensure that the opposition wins the election, and argued that with the withdrawals, Együtt will not have a candidate in 76 constituencies where another opposition party had a nominee with a good chance of winning. He noted that LMP was running a candidate in 103 out of the 106 constituencies and Momentum in 90 districts, an attitude which he called “extremely irresponsible”. Juhász urged both parties to “take unilateral moves reflecting voters’ will” and withdraw candidates wherever necessary.
Referring to the withdrawals, DK head Ferenc Gyurcsány said that “voters of the democratic opposition now have a much clearer picture”. He added that the inter-party agreement was aimed at “cooperation to suppress Fidesz into a minority”. Gyurcsány also voiced hope that further withdrawals would follow in the next few days.
Socialist-Párbeszéd PM candidate Gergely Karácsony said he was proud of the agreement, which he said considerably increased “Hungary’s chances to get rid of the past eight years’ tyranny”.
He highlighted the hard work of the candidates now withdrawn and thanked them for their gesture. He added that “the parties staying away” are expected to show “the same magnanimity”. “They may feel that the cause of the country is more important than a party cause,” Karácsony said.
LMP announced later on Wednesday they would withdraw their candidate in Budapest’s 21st district to help the opposition’s chances, and thanked Párbeszéd for doing the same in another constituency where LMP fields a candidate. “This gives us the chance to defeat the ruling coalition in key constituencies,” the statement said.
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd opposition alliance, promised on Tuesday to guarantee fair competition for employers, fair wages for workers and to restore trilateral bargaining practices if he wins the upcoming general election.
Speaking at a news conference before talks with union representatives, Karácsony underlined the importance of cooperation between workers, employers and the government. He said the recent period had been harmful for both workers and employers, arguing that the Fidesz government had gutted the trilateral bargaining system and adopted a labour code that “devalued” worker and employer rights.
Karácsony vowed to adopt a long-term social and economic policy agreement that guarantees both workers and employers to take a step forward.
Asked about opposition talks and coordination regarding the election, Karácsony said the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance will conclude its talks with other opposition parties over the next 36 hours.
László Andor, who holds the employment portfolio in Karácsony’s shadow cabinet, told the same news conference that the Karácsony government would set up a modern employment service based on European examples.
He named emigration and the “bloated” fostered work programme as the most serious “anomalies” of Hungary’s labour market.
Tamás Mellár, who holds the finance portfolio in the shadow cabinet, said the new government will be committed to meeting the deficit target of 3 percent of GDP and reducing the public debt. He said the Karácsony government would restore fiscal discipline and the institution of the supplementary budget and go back to approving the state budget in the autumn.
Gergely Karácsony, the prime ministerial candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd opposition alliance, said on Saturday that Hungary’s government is capable only of lies and intimidation, referring to accusations that he planned to dismantle Hungary’s fence at the southern border.
“I do not want to tear down the fence,” Karácsony told a press conference, adding that the barrier was an important means for protecting Hungary’s border.
He also said the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance did not support the mandatory introduction migrant quotas or economic migration.
Neither would the alliance back locating migrants in barracks or private homes. At the same time, he noted that during the refugee crisis, the Fidesz government had accommodated refugees in barracks.
He also denied supporting the idea of supporting the setting up of an Islamic prayer room in his Budapest district of Zugló, where he is the local mayor, noting that local councils do not have any powers when it comes to issues concerning religion.
He said he rejected these lies and said he would sue for libel if a retraction was not forthcoming.
Karácsony also dismissed a report suggesting he had once said he hated the Socialists more than Fidesz.
He also denied that a Karácsony government planned to increase taxes. Instead, his alliance’s tax reforms would lead to tax cuts for 90 percent of the electorate, the PM candidate added.
Referring to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Friday radio interview in which he suggested that certain citizens were “blacklisted”, Karácsony said Orbán was only capable of making threats and lying about his opponents.
Karácsony insisted that the Hungarian economy‘s rate of growth merely reflected the amount of inflows of EU money.
The other countries in central and eastern Europe are leaving Hungary behind, he added.
Karácsony told journalists that further announcements were expected on opposition electoral cooperation by the so-called “democratic opposition parties”. He asked for patience, adding that the Jobbik party had refused to enter talks but work was yet to be done as far as the other opposition parties were concerned.
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Asked about what had changed since Gyula Molnár, the Socialist Party chairman, had said no further cooperation talks would take place and no decision reversals were on the agenda, Karácsony nosaid voters had a justifiable expectation that any outstanding issues should be resolved on the question of tactical withdrawals in individual constituencies.
Asked about his shadow cabinet and the accusation that several people in it were linked to US financier George Soros, the PM candidate noted that
Orbán was a former “Soros scholar”, and “I cannot imagine anyone who is more of a Soros agent than he”.
Without EU funds, Viktor Orbán would not be Hungary’s prime minister today, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance said on Monday.
EU funds for Orbán is “what natural gas is for Putin”, Gergely Karácsony told a conference. He sees them as “free money, some of which will, of course, goes to the people.”
Orbán has been using these funds to operate an “ineffective economic system controlled by an oligarchy”, Karácsony said at the event organised by the Foundation for a Liberal Hungary.
Karácsony said EU funds were there to promote development, not help “the prime minister’s relatives stand on their own two feet.”
He vowed to lobby for reform of EU funding rules and seek strict guarantees for democracy and the rule of law, in the event of winning the April 8 general election.
Ruling Fidesz responded by saying that if Karácsony “and the other Soros people” came to power, they would divert EU funds to schemes caring for migrants. The left wing voted for every “pro-migrant proposal” in the European Parliament that proposed fining countries that do not want to resettle migrants, Fidesz said in a statement.
It is inevitable that a basic income will have to be introduced in Hungary and throughout Europe, opposition Socialists-Párbeszéd prime ministerial candidate Gergely Karácsony said on Thursday.
Within ten or twenty years, a basic income will become a reality almost everywhere in Europe, Karácsony told the conference Basic income: preparing for the politics of the future.
A basic income may provide the best way to restore “painfully absent” social cohesion, but before being introduced, it should be trialled and its effects on labour market activity examined, Karácsony said.
He added that a Socialist-led government would first increase family benefits and the basic pension so as to guarantee “the level of security provided by a basic income” to people above working age and a guaranteed minimum wage benefit to people of working age.
Ruling Fidesz responded that Karácsony and the alliance he leads wanted to give free money to migrants paid for by “hardworking Hungarians”. In a statement referring to US financier George Soros, Fidesz said a government of “Soros’s people” would allow migrants to settle in Hungary while giving them “a regular income paid for by hardworking Hungarians” without requiring them to work.
Should the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance be elected into power on April 8, it will seek to “bring back peace” to Hungary and restore the “damage caused by [ruling] Fidesz in souls,” the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate, Gergely Karácsony, said in Salgótarján, in northern Hungary, late on Wednesday.
The ruling parties’ “governance based on finding enemies” has destroyed peace in the country, Karácsony insisted. “If we can make it clear that politics is not synonymous with hatemongering and plunder, if we can lift deprived regions and people and convince people that governance is a service, we might … end the civil war raging in the country…,” Karácsony told a forum of about 400 people.
Karácsony said he intended to file a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for “campaigning in a kindergarten”. Not only is this illegal, it is also “particularly harmful because the government’s education policy strips our children of their future.”
He also called on his audience to consider “what comes after the election”, and warned that “ballots cast for Jobbik might not be in good hands.” Fidesz has hijacked several ideas from Jobbik, such as “harassing private schools”, or “nationalising the schoolbook market or the private pension funds”, he warned.
Karácsony called on his audience to vote and campaign for voting among their acquaintances, “because then April 8 can become the holiday of Hungarian freedom.”
The policies of Hungary’s incumbent government “jeopardise” the country’s chances to become “part of a renewed and social Europe”, Gergely Karácsony, the prime ministerial candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, said after meeting diplomats in Budapest on Wednesday.
Karácsony insisted that the government’s policies were “creating a war situation in the EU” and said that the community could cut funding for the country because of its “non-transparent bids involving huge risks of corruption”.
He pledged that under his premiership Hungary would join the European Prosecutor’s Office with no delay and his government would “do every possible step to distribute community funds in a transparent way and ensuring that they reach voters”. He added that EU funds would be spent on human resources, health and welfare if his party alliance won the upcoming election.
Karácsony rejected “false and completely baseless” accusations that the opposition is working to turn Hungary into a migrant haven. He said his government would not support mandatory migrant quotas but it would contribute to a European solution to the migrant problem through, for example, strengthening border protection. He added that Hungary was not suffering from a migration pressure; “nobody wants to immigrate, people rather seek to emigrate from this country.”
Karácsony was asked about press reports saying that a staff of some 2,000 are currently working to implement the “Soros plan” in Hungary.
He said he had not heard the footage mentioned in the reports, and insisted that there was “no Soros Plan in Hungary”. Hungary has an “Orbán Plan to drive the country out of the EU,” he added.
Fidesz said in reaction that it was Karácsony and “the rest of the Soros candidates” who were a threat to Hungary, insisting that they intended to turn Hungary into an “immigrant country”.
“Karácsony was lobbying Soros’s reliable allies even in Brussels,” Fidesz said in a statement. The party said Karácsony was lobbying politicians “who have in the past criticised Hungary’s migration policy and border fence and urged the implementation of the quota scheme”. Fidesz said the politicians in question “see Karácsony and the opposition as allies” in their goals.
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, discussed plans to set up an anti-corruption prosecutor’s office with members of its shadow cabinet and other experts in Budapest, on Sunday.
Karácsony told a press conference afterwards that his ten-point programme as prime ministerial candidate included “reclaiming in court the private property linked to Fidesz and originating from taxpayer money”.
The alliance would set up the anti-fraud office, support Hungary’s accession to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and press for rules that would wipe out corruption once and for all, Karácsony said.
Former minority rights ombudsman Jenő Kaltenbach whom Karácsony asked to lead the office said that corruption costs Hungary an annual 500 billion forints (EUR 1.56bn), which corresponds to half of EU support.
Because of corruption, the majority of Hungarians have lost confidence in politicians, Kaltenbach said. Citing a recent survey, he said that merely 23 percent of Hungarians, the lowest rate in Europe, see a chance of efficient action against corruption.
Socialist lawmaker Tamás Harangozó said that once elected into power the Socialists would impose a 75 percent “oligarch tax” on companies that are selling residency bonds and on extra profits generated merely through domestic and EU public procurements.
THIS IS HOW REFORMED CORRUPTION IN HUNGARY
Not only Transparency International’s (TI) new report is stunning for Hungary. In fact, hvg.hu compared reports on corruption from the last 15 years. According to them, corruption became systematic in Hungary. Read more HERE.
