The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) considers it a success that both the Socialist-Parbeszed alliance and LMP have accepted the party’s invitation for talks on Sunday, deputy leader Csaba Molnár said on Friday.
As we wrote, DK Chairman Ferenc Gyurcsány invited the leaders of the Socialists-Párbeszed alliance, LMP and Jobbik in a speech delivered on Hungary’s national holiday on March 15.
“By inviting the Jobbik party, DK has done something it would have held inconceivable a month or two ago. If, however, Jobbik leader Gábor Vona and his party fail to hear the voters’ call and refuse to participate, it would not be DK to blame,” Molnár told a press conference.
Molnár added, however, that it is not electoral cooperation or an alliance DK wants to negotiate with Jobbik on. DK rather wants to agree with it on not helping Fidesz into power if the ruling party loses its majority in the April 8 general election.
Molnár noted that DK had agreed with the Socialists on dividing the 106 individual constituencies among themselves. This is an issue to be negotiated with LMP, he said.
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Commenting on Viktor Orbán’s March 15 statement that those in power “will seek moral, political and legal amends” after the election, Molnár said that the prime minister had openly threatened the entire opposition electorate in a move that “cannot just be ignored”.
Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszed alliance, and Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the Democratic Coalition (DK), on Thursday voiced support for opposition cooperation which embraced the Jobbik party.
Speaking at a commemoration of the 1848 revolution organised by the opposition parties in Fovam Square in downtown Budapest, Gyurcsány said it was necessary to talk to Jobbik “not about election cooperation or about a joint government but about the cooperative way to pull down [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán’s evil system in the next parliament”. “There is no point in applying tactics or being polite; we must negotiate and come to an agreement,” Gyurcsány said. He announced that his party would unilaterally withdraw its prime ministerial candidate in favour of Bernadett Szél, the green opposition LMP’s candidate.
Gyurcsány insisted that no single opposition party could defeat ruling Fidesz on its own, but they would be strong together.
“What are we waiting for? Let us utilise the strength of the majority,” he said.
Democratic parties should agree to field just one candidate, the one with the highest chance of winning in each consituency, he said. “Coming to a consensus is not an option but an obligation; old grievances or earlier disputes no longer have relevance,” he insisted, adding that “we must come to an agreement”.
Gyurcsány invited the leaders of Socialists-Párbeszéd, LMP, and Jobbik for talks on Sunday afternoon.
Karácsony, referring to Jobbik, said it was “possible to make an alliance with the devil”. He said he was ready to unilaterally withdraw Socialist-Parbeszed candidates in individual constituencies. He added:
“We will trammel the parties to create a wider alliance.”
He insisted that a pact with the devil was necessary “in order not to be subsumed by the devil”.
The Parbeszed co-leader said that “after the change of government, the governing alliance will start a quiet revolution in health, education, and the jobs market.”
Ágnes Kunhalmi, head of the Socialist Party’s Budapest chapter, told the crowd that “nobody can do it alone” and pointed to the necessity of cooperation. She added, however, that “democrats will couple with democrats” and insisted that democracy could not be rebuilt in cooperation with “cute sham-democrats”. Jobbik, she said, “is not a solution but part of the problem”. “Each vote for Jobbik will be wasted and will help Viktor Orbán,” Kunhalmi said.
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Liberal Party executive Anett Bősz said her party was working to rebuild democratic rule of law in Hungary, “where anyone has opportunities in line with their talents and efforts, where there is no retaliation for criticising the government and where there are no illegal perks for friends or the son-in-law of the prime minister.”
MP Szabolcs Szabó, representing Egyutt, said voters who wanted “authoritarian and thieving Fidesz to disappear from government” were in the majority. He also called on opposition politicians to cooperate.
Meanwhile, Jobbik manager Gábor Szabó said in a statement that his party will not take part in Sunday’s talks initiated by the Democratic Coalition.
The prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance has called on the government to act as a caretaker administration until the April 8 general election and desist from distributing public funding.
“The government is a moral failure,” Gergely Karácsony told a press conference on Wednesday. “Its members no longer have a place in Hungarian public life.”
He insisted government members were embroiled in “murky affairs” and a new government would be tasked with calling them to account.
He called on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán not only to remove Lajos Kósa, a minister without portfolio in charge of the government’s Modern Cities scheme, from the cabinet, but to withdraw his parliamentary mandate as a Fidesz lawmaker.
Karácsony reacted to a report of alleged corruption linked to Kósa, who “handled 4.3 billion euros on behalf of a mysterious entity”.
Kósa on Tuesday denied allegations, labelling the report “fake news”.
Karácsony insisted that “a person who handles billions but cannot provide a sound explanation for the money’s origins should not be a candidate.”
He further cited reports by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) on suspected corruption cases implicating Government Office Chief János Lázár and National Bank Governor György Matolcsy in luxury property deals and Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén in wildlife hunting in Sweden.
“What we today call a government in Hungary is in fact a crime syndicate run by Viktor Orbán. Members of the gang include the prime minister’s relatives and closest confidants,” Karácsony said.
The Párbeszéd politician noted that he had asked former ombudsman Jenő Kaltenbach to lead the anti-fraud prosecution the Socialist-Párbeszéd government would set up if voted into power next month. The authority would be in charge of revealing misappropriation of public money and launching legal procedures, he said.
Asked about a press report dismissing the possibility of election cooperation with the LMP party, Karácsony said that the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance “firmly believes in talks” which he confirmed were ongoing. He said an agreement had to be reached as soon as possible, adding that the alliance may withdraw its candidates in a couple of constituencies in favour of LMP.
Karácsony said Socialist-Párbeszéd was open to talks with Jobbik but they had so far rejected their overtures.
Ruling Fidesz in response said that Karácsony was “a man of George Soros” as his shadow cabinet is also composed of “Soros’s men”.
If elected to power, Socialist-Párbeszéd would dismantle the border fence and allow the resettlement of migrants to Hungary’s territory implementing the EU’s quota scheme, the party said in a statement, adding that they would this way make the country financially bankrupt.
Hungary’s April 8 general election will bear significance beyond the country, opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd prime ministerial candidate Gergely Karácsony and Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) head Christian Kern said at a joint press conference after talks in Vienna.
The outcome of the Hungarian election could also influence the future of Europe, Karácsony said during the press conference broadcast on SPO’s Facebook page.
“Orbánism is an illness in Europe” which is infecting an increasing number of member states and already shows signs in Austria, Karácsony said.
As the process is damaging for the whole of Europe, there is a pressing need for good relations between the left-wing parties of Hungary and Austria, he added.
Karácsony said the Orbán government’s policy for Europe involved “stealing EU moneys and then using some of the stolen money to incite hatred in Hungarians against the EU”. “They present the EU and Brussels as if they were enemies of Hungary,” he added.
Hungarians always wanted to belong to Europe, so ruling Fidesz’s campaign involving threats that Budapest will look like Vienna if migrants are allowed to settle will actually work in favour of the Socialists-Párbeszéd alliance, he said.
He compared the election campaign to the battle of David with the Goliath where the latter is represented by Fidesz, having all the resources, but David is represented by the Socialists-Párbeszéd which “has justice on its side and will eventually win the battle”.
Kern, a former Austrian chancellor, said he was in agreement with Karácsony that democracy, European solidarity and constitutionality are undisputable virtues.
He said Hungary is one of Austria’s most important partners and it causes some concern that Hungary has become “massively anti-European” during Orbán’s governance.
Referring to Karácsony and Socialist Party leader Gyula Molnár, he expressed trust that there would be an alternative model standing against Orbán’s illiberal democracy.
In response to a question concerning possible links between crime statistics and the migrant policy of Austria’s former government and border protection measures, Kern said crime statistics improved significantly in Austria in recent years. There are integration problems connected to migrants and criminal acts but problems must be addressed by organising integration, he added.
If voted into power in April, the Socialist-Párbeszéd government would halt payouts of European Union funds and reallocate them to areas like health care, education or the social safety net, Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the two parties, said on Monday.
The reason why the government ruled on the tenders for all EU funds available for the current funding cycle quicker than any other member state was because — fearing an election loss — it wanted to “fill the pockets of its buddies”, Karácsony told a news conference.
He said spending what amounts to approximately 900,000 forints (EUR 2,900) per citizen responsibly “would definitely require more time”.
Karácsony said it was a positive that funding totalling 9,000 billion forints had yet to be paid out. Next month, he said, voters would have a chance to give the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance a mandate to spend that money “on better causes” than the current government has.
In addition to reallocating the remaining EU funds, the next government will set up an anti-corruption agency and reclaim in court EU monies “that have been used to increase private wealth”, the PM candidate said.
Gergely Karácsony, the PM candidate of the opposition Socialist and Párbeszéd parties, met German trade union federation (Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes, DGB) leader Reiner Hoffmann for talks in Budapest on Saturday.
The two sides agreed that the European community needs a unified wage policy, with consistent minimum wages and the same employee rights across the EU, Karácsony told a press conference after the meeting.
“Hungarians want European wages and European-level social security; a government which hinders such efforts is working contrary to the interests of Hungarian people”, Karácsony said.
He insisted that the upcoming national election will give voters an opportunity to “remove the government which prevents Europe’s revival” and pledged that his party alliance would “redirect Hungary back to Europe” if they win power on April 8.
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Hoffmann said that an “ailing” Europe called for political changes worked out in close cooperation between member states. The community should be demonstrated as “something more than just a European common market” to its citizens, but it requires a “strong welfare dimension”, he added. He insisted that European employees needed a significant payrise and argued that “there is no point in a competition in which wages are reduced and working hours increased”.
Opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd prime ministerial candidate Gergely Karácsony promised on Thursday to get the Istanbul Convention ratified and guarantee equal wages for men and women if he wins the upcoming general election.
Referring to international women’s day being celebrated on Thursday, he said “the real women’s day in Hungary will be April 8” when voters go to the polls and can express their wish for the equal treatment of men and women in Hungary.
If Socialist-Párbeszéd form the next government, they will introduce effective measures against domestic violence, improve infant and kindergarten care, and increase the wages of women working in creches, he said. Families will get a chance to decide how many children they want and women will not have to choose between a family and a career, he added.
Socialist board member Zita Gurmai said that as long as Viktor Orbán remained as Hungary’s prime minister, the issue of equal opportunities for women would not progress.
“Some ruling party politicians in this country take the liberty of hurting women”, she said, adding that poverty was prevalent among workers and the number of women forced to live in poverty was growing. “It’s bad to be female, poor and a democrat in Hungary today,” she added.
In government, Socialist-Párbeszéd would introduce equal wages for men and women in the constitution, she said.
Green opposition LMP pledged to help more women participate in parliament and public life. Bernadett Szél, the party’s prime ministerial candidate, also vowed to introduce equal pay and schemes that help women raising children return to work.
Women account for only 10 percent of parliamentary lawmakers while they make up for 52 percent of society, she noted. Society with women in more roles tends to be more balanced, she said.
The Liberals, allied to Socialist-Párbeszéd, stated the same goals as the other two opposition forces in respect of women.
If the opposition Socialists-Párbeszéd alliance forms the government after the April 8 parliamentary election, it will immediately suspend the payment of European Union funds and review each winning bid, the PM candidate of the two parties said on Sunday.
“Today over half of EU funding is getting stolen in Hungary while the other half is being spent on silly projects,” Gergely Karácsony told a press conference in Budapest.
“We’ve had enough of light railways, fountains, horse-wellness and vanity projects in Hungary, and we’ve had enough of funds being distributed for projects among the cronies of ruling Fidesz,” he said.
Karácsony pledged to direct EU funds towards improving energy efficiency and social security, and reforming health-care and education.
He also pledged to set up an authority to investigate and prosecute corruption.
During the next EU budgetary period starting in 2020, he said they would seek to win significant funding to develop “human resources” in central and eastern Europe.
István Ujhelyi, a Socialist MEP, said their important task would be to repair Hungary’s relations with the EU and join the new EU Public Prosecutor’s office.
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Fidesz in response said it would best serve the interests of Hungarians if politicians of the Hungarian left refrained from supporting proposals submitted to the European Parliament on cutting EU development funding for anti-migration countries, such as Hungary.
“If Karácsony means indeed what he said, he would not have made an alliance with the Socialists who are responsible for the largest-scale misappropriation of EU funds, they have stolen one-third of the Budapest 4th metro line construction project’s funds,” the party said in a statement.
If the opposition Socialists-Párbeszéd alliance forms the government after April’s general elections, a comprehensive wage increase scheme will be implemented, 13th-month pensions introduced and public utility fees cut, prime ministerial candidate Gergely Karácsony said on Saturday.
An anti-corruption authority will be set up to address the issue of public monies stolen and all European Union resources will be spent on education, health care and better living standards, Karácsony told a press conference.
He promised to double base pensions and gradually ensure than no pensioner receives less than 100,000 forints (EUR 320) per month.
Karácsony also promised to make quality health care accessible to all and implement a comprehensive reform of education, including free first diplomas and more recognition for teachers.
He said that government would put an end to the flat personal income tax rate, exempt the minimum wage again from tax which would result in 20,000-30,000 forints monthly extra for two-thirds of people holding jobs. He promised to impose taxes on offshore companies’ revenues, persons possessing great wealth and companies that pollute the environment.
Karácsony said households‘ public utility costs would be halved by reducing gas prices and electricity, and implementing home insulation schemes from EU resources.
He promised to double family benefits and boost opportunities for SMEs.
Karácsony announced that a referendum would be held on annulling the current constitution and drafting a new constitution with the involvement of the public.
In response, a Fidesz spokesman told MTI that the “PM candidate of the mafia left-wing” had not spoken about his approach to migration, “the most crucial issue faced by Hungary”.
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Imre Puskás cited Karácsony as saying in 2015 that the fence along Hungary’s southern border should be dismantled, migrants should be settled in empty public facilities, including barracks, and a common European solution should be found to manage immigration.
Hungary’s ruling parties maintained their lead over the opposition parties, with 53 percent of decided voters in favour of the Fidesz alliance with the Christian Democrats, according to a fresh poll by the Századvég Institute.
Taking the electorate as a whole, 36 percent of the vote would go to the Fidesz-led alliance, Századvég said.
If the election were held this Sunday, 8 percent of all voters and 14 percent of decided voters would choose Jobbik, according to the poll.
The leftist opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance would receive 8 percent of all votes and 11 percent of the decided vote, the think-tank said.
The green opposition LMP party would capture 7 percent of all votes and 8 percent of committed voters. The leftist Democratic Coalition, led by former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, was preferred by 5 percent of all voters and 6 percent of decided voters.
Altogether 30 percent of respondents were undecided, Századvég said.
Századvég conducted its phone poll of 1,000 randomly chosen adults between Feb. 26 and 28.
Hungary is suffering from a “welfare crisis”, while the country’s “anti-social” government is reluctant to resolve related problems, Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the allied Socialist-Párbeszéd parties, told a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.
Karácsony insisted that “all areas affecting the everyday life of people are in a critical state” and mentioned health and welfare services, pensions and high public utility prices as such areas.
Karácsony spoke after a meeting of parliament’s welfare committee, where “deputies of ruling Fidesz voted down” opposition proposals to address welfare problems.
The Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance, if voted into power on April 8, will start building “a true social democracy” and replace “all sources (the government has) cut in recent years”.
“We must reverse the tendency of pensioner impoverishment; we need a fairer pension system,” Karácsony added. He said his party alliance would cut “pensions in the million-forint range” and double the minimum pension, as well as reintroduce 13th month pensions. A Socialist-Párbeszéd government would also introduce a guaranteed pensions programme, Karácsony said.
Ruling Fidesz referred to Karácsony in a statement as “George Soros’s man” and insisted that Karácsony would “make it obligatory for Hungarian people to shelter and support migrants”.
In its statement, Fidesz blamed the Socialist governments before 2010 for “impoverishing the country, stripping the elderly of one month’s pension, tripling the price of gas and bringing health care to the verge of collapsing”.
The allied Socialist and Párbeszéd parties have urged cooperation within the “democratic” opposition in light of the results of Sunday’s interim municipal election in Hódmezővásárhely, in southern Hungary.
The message of the Hódmezővásárhely election, won by an independent with opposition support, is that an able candidate can defeat ruling Fidesz if turnout at the polls is high, Gergely Karácsony, PM candidate of the Socialist-Párbeszéd alliance told a press conference on Monday. He added that “votes must not be divided up” but cast for the candidate with the highest support.
Socialist leader Gyula Molnár referred to the opposition victory in Hódmezővásárhely as a “serious blow” to Fidesz, and voiced concern that the ruling party might “launch a series of ignoble attacks” on cooperating adversaries. Molnár suggested that an agreement concerning jointly supported candidates should be reached before March 15, ahead of the April 8 general election. He said the Socialists have been “ready to give up positions” and cooperate with other parties to facilitate a government change. He also noted that one third of the Socialists were not party members.
Answering questions about possible cooperation with Jobbik, Karácsony said he saw no opportunity for an “organised cooperation” with that party, and added that “it was up to the wisdom of voters to decide which candidate has better chances”. He also said that
the candidate with the highest support “should stand to the left from Fidesz rather than to the right”.
Karácsony added, however, that “Jobbik could also support independent candidates supported by Socialists-Párbeszéd”.
Concerning the LMP party, Karácsony said that “LMP supporters could soon start demonstrating at LMP’s headquarters” if their party is reluctant to cooperate with other parties. He went on to say that “the same applies to other small parties” and added that his alliance was open to join forces with them, too. LMP has some candidates “who could represent the whole of the democratic opposition with the highest chances to win”.
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The Socialist-Párbeszéd election alliance will cut the monthly price of gas by 30 percent for average consumption, of electricity and district heating by 10-10 percent, respectively, if it comes to power in April, its prime minister candidate said on Saturday.
The alliance’s progressive utility prices scheme has been designed to support average households, Gergely Karácsony told a press conference.
Bertalan Tóth, the group leader of the opposition Socialists, said that since January 1, 2013 ruling Fidesz “has sold gas to households” at a price higher than the price paid for gas by the national gas trading company.
Since Fidesz came to power in 2010, gas transmission has been suspended in a total of 167,000 households and another 20,000 households have been disconnected from electricity grids, he noted.
In response, Fidesz said that the Socialists have been “attacking” the utility price cut schemes ever since it was introduced in 2013 and would fully scrap it if they came to power this spring.
They are “good at making promises” first during an election campaign and then do just the opposite, Fidesz said in a statement, adding that despite their promise they increased gas prices threefold after coming to power.
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If the opposition Socialist-Párbeszéd party alliance were to win power at the upcoming election, they would raise wages in Hungary’s health care by 50 percent, the two parties’ PM candidate told a press conference marking the Day of Hungarian Nurses on Monday.
Gergely Karácsony said that the government had “forgotten about nurses”. Referring to Viktor Orbán’s recent state-of-the-nation address, Karácsony said that the prime minister’s not even mentioning health care “shows how uncomfortable the subject is” for the government.
Karácsony also insisted that
while the government had raised wages in the sector it also scrapped benefits and the raises “in fact came to nothing”.
Párbeszéd co-leader Tímea Szabó said it was “unacceptable and inhumane” that nurses working night shifts are forced to take up a second job to make ends meet.
On another subject, Karácsony said the government’s recent “Stop Soros” draft law package was a “stupid legislation aimed at harassing civil groups”.
“It is not [US financier] George Soros that needs to be stopped but Viktor Orbán,” he insisted.
In reaction to Karácsony’s remarks, ruling Fidesz said that he was now “the face” of the Socialist Party “which had not respected nurses and paid shockingly meagre wages”. They insisted that while in 2010 the average nurse made 159,000 forints (EUR 511) a month before taxes, they now earn 309,000 forints, to be raised to 334,000 forints next year.
Zoltán Ónodi-Szűcs, state secretary at the human resources ministry, said earlier in the day that it was a government priority to improve work conditions for nurses. He said that 10 billion forints (EUR 32m) had been earmarked in the central budget for upgrading medical equipment in hospitals and facilities providing accommodation for nurses across the country by 2020.
The government dedicated February 19 as the Day of Hungarian Nurses in 2014.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s keynote speech assessing his government’s performance over the past eight years was “full of lies”, Gergely Karácsony, the prime minister candidate of the opposition Socialists and Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd) told a press conference on Sunday.
Socialists – Dialogue for Hungary
Whereas Orbán insisted that “Hungary comes first”, in reality the ruling Fidesz party’s top priority was Hungarians’ money, the opposition politician said.
“Had the fate of Hungary really been important to the prime minister, he would have taken into account where the country’s economy, education and health care have ended up,” he said, adding that the related statistics were “deplorable”.
He also called on Orbán “not to hide from public debate”.
Socialist head Gyula Molnár compared the keynote speech “to the motivation speech of a midsize Socialist company [in the Communist era], spiked with a few false illusions.”
Jobbik
The strongest opposition party, Jobbik said in a statement that Orbán’s speech assessed “his own past eight years and not the country’s”. “While Orbán’s strawmen have acquired unheard-of wealth, Hungary has taken in 20,000 rich migrants and 2,300 poor ones.”
“The Hungarian head of government is robbing the country in a way that would shame the mafia,” Jobbik insisted.
Meanwhile, a third of Hungarians are living in a dire state of poverty with rundown hospitals, it added.
LMP
In a video published on her Facebook page, Bernadett Szél, the prime minister candidate of green LMP, said that Orbán’s speech spoke of “an alternate reality”. The true reality was a “fight against propaganda,” she added.
Szél said Orbán’s speech made protecting a fence “nobody wants to demolish” its central concern. Hungary, according to Orbán, was also a place where the central bank governor had done “an excellent job protecting forex loan-holders”. “In reality, tens of thousands of families still live in fear of losing their homes,” she said. Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, she said that
whereas Orbán claimed that Hungary had regained its independence, the prime minister was “implementing the Putin plan year by year, step by step”.
The LMP candidate for prime minister said Hungary was in need of an immediate and radical wage hike to curb emigration. Subsidies for families and pensions, as well as funding for education and health care, should be raised, she added.
Democratic Coalition
The Democratic Coalition said in a statement that after “the last such speech Orbán would make” and after the April election he would have to answer in court to the charges brought against his relatives.
Liberals
The Liberal Party said in a statement that, flying in the face of Orbán’s claims, Hungary had slid to the bottom of the list of EU economies. The government’s programme to open towards the East had failed, it added. “Our regional competitors are performing far better than us.” Only corruption has grown in Hungary, the statement said. The real danger to Hungary is not the “Soros Plan” but Orban and the Fidesz’s policies, the Liberals said.
Együtt
“The Hungarian crisis has dragged out,” Viktor Szigetvári, the opposition Együtt party’s candidate for prime minister, told a news conference near the site of Orbán’s speech. “Social services have been dismantled, the education and health sectors have disintegrated, and Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have left Hungary behind economically,” the opposition politician said.
Photo: MTI
He insisted the past eight years had been wasted, with pension savings wiped out, a growing public debt and a failure to build up the middle class. “There is no Hungarian economic miracle, whatever Viktor Orbán may say,” Szigetvári said. The Együtt leader said Hungary should turn to the West rather the East and halt its project to expand the Paks nuclear power plant. He further urged the elimination of “Russian secret services operating in Hungary”.
If elected to government, the Socialist-Párbeszéd coalition will launch a government scheme to keep young Hungarians in the country and to motivate those who have already emigrated to return, the parties’ PM candidate said on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in front of the National Election Office, Gergely Karácsony said on Friday that a new state secretary’s office would be set up which would be dedicated to the scheme.
The Socialist-Párbeszéd party coalition’s strategy will include “ensuring equal voting rights” to Hungarians abroad. Additionally, they will finance first degrees and launch a housing programme to motivate young citizens to stay in the country, Párbeszéd’s co-leader said.
The election office has used “enormous resources” to register ethnic Hungarians holding dual citizenships in neighbouring countries to vote in the Hungarian elections, Karacsony said. At the same time, it has “made no efforts” to enable Hungarian citizens working abroad to vote, he insisted.
Karácsony said he had asked Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi to develop the strategy.
Ujhelyi insisted that the Fidesz-Christian Democrat government’s “only” scheme to lure young Hungarian emigrants home “has failed”.
Citing data from the Central Statistical Office, Ujhelyi said Hungarians working abroad transfer some 900 billion forints (EUR 2.9m) to Hungary annually. “Their money is needed. but they are not given a say in the affairs of their home country,” he said. Ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries have been much better informed and more intensively targeted to vote, he insisted. These voters are much more likely to vote for the incumbent government, Ujhelyi said.
Asked why he has voted in favour of the EU’s resettlement quota scheme for asylum seekers, Ujhelyi said he does not support a mandatory, definitive, normative quota.
Karácsony also said he does not support the mandatory quota scheme.
Commenting on the press conference, Fidesz said in a statement that the Socialists and Parbeszed, “although they try to deny it”, support the quota scheme and the “Soros plan”. The parties’ MEPs “have voted for every pro-migration proposal in the European Parliament”, the statement said.
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The allied Socialist and Párbeszéd opposition parties on Monday said they would initiate setting up a parliamentary investigative committee to look into the prime minister’s responsibility in an alleged corruption case surrounding Elios, a company that has been investigated by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF.
Karácsony insisted that the case showed signs of the use of “organised-crime methods” and that the prime minister’s son-in-law was also implicated in it.
He said OLAF’s report on the case had determined that the Hungarian prosecutor’s office “had been complicit in the crime”. Karácsony said it was clear that Péter Polt, the chief public prosecutor, was unfit to safeguard taxpayer’s money.
He said Párbeszéd would once again submit to parliament a proposal to establish an anti-corruption agency.
Socialist Party group leader Bertalan Tóth told the same press conference that the two parties would on Monday reach out to the other parliamentary parties asking them to support setting up the investigative committee. Under house rules a fifth of lawmakers is required to establish an investigative committee.
Commenting on its handling of cases that have been investigated by OLAF, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that it would not respond to “politically-charged attacks lacking any trace of professionalism”.
“Over the past few days, several politicians have made baseless claims about the cases OLAF has forwarded to the prosecutor’s office, severely violating — in a broad sense — the independence of the judiciary,” the office said. The prosecutor’s office has always carried out its duties in line with the constitution and will continue to do so in the future, too, the statement said.
Promising to build a “fair and free” Hungary, the opposition Socialist Party approved its election manifesto at its congress on Saturday.
István Hiller, head of the party’s national board, described the manifesto as a “progressive, leftist programme of social democracy” that is not just for left-wing voters.
He vowed that his party would “build a new Hungarian republic” if it returned to power after the April election. Hiller said the Socialist Party’s vision for the future countered the ruling parties’ “vision of an illiberal democracy”.
Hiller said that one of the important tasks of the opposition is to move as many people as possible to vote. The larger the turnout, the better the chance for change, he said.
He said no political group should be allowed to “monopolise” the concept of “nation”, adding that Hungarians living in Hungary and beyond the border all belonged to one nation.
Sergei Stanishev, leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and former Bulgarian prime minister, told the congress that the 2018 election campaign “won’t just be your battle but the battle of the whole of Europe”. He said the campaign ahead would not be easy, arguing that the government had an abundance of resources. Stanishev added that justice was the most effective tool in countering the government’s resources. He cited Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as saying that he wanted a “strong nation state” and an “illiberal democracy”. He said Hungary needed to be strong democratic country that is respected in Europe.
Photo: MTI
Párbeszed co-leader Tímea Szabó talked about freedom, saying it was more than one’s right to express their opinion in public or travel to the West. She said the alliance of the Socialist Party, Párbeszed and the Liberal Party viewed freedom as one’s right to a heated home, the right to go on a holiday from work or not having to fear that one will lose their home because they cannot pay their bills.
“It is time to oust those from power who have taken freedom away, who take from the poor what little they have and it is time to build a new country where people help one another and where everyone matters,” Szabó said.
The event was also addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK’s Labour Party, in a video message.
