Vona pledges to resign if Jobbik loses 2018 election

Budapest, June 12 (MTI) – Gábor Vona, the leader of the radical nationalist Jobbik party, said he would resign from his post if the party ends up losing the general election in 2018, in an interview published by daily Magyar Nemzet on Saturday.

“I feel the pressure that many see Jobbik as the last chance. If the party fails to win the general election in 2018, I will indeed regard that as a personal failure,” Vona told the paper, adding that he would then accept the consequences and resign.

He said that under party rules Jobbik would need to convene an extraordinary congress to elect a new leadership.

Vona said party rules allow him the option to run for the post for another term, but his decision whether or not to seek re-election would depend on Jobbik’s margin of defeat.

“If Jobbik losses by one percent, that does not necessarily mean an end to my political career,” Vona said.

Vona called Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “a burnt-out man interested in nothing else but stealing and soccer”, adding that the prime minister’s popularity is hanging by a single thread: the migrant crisis.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters