What will happen next? The only MEP of the Socialists leaves the party

István Ujhelyi, an MEP of the opposition Socialists, has decided to quit his party, he told MTI on Sunday.

In a letter written in a personal tone he said he had made his decision after “a long mourning process and trepidation” as “something has been irreparably broken”. He said he had been a member of the party since he was 18, and considered the party as a second family. “I am not saying goodbye to them but to the party’s current mechanisms and shortsighted futurelessness,” he said.

Ujhelyi said he had called for reviving the party after its latest election defeat, but he “could not break through the wall of internal petrification”. Ujhelyi said he would keep his mandate in the European Parliament. The Socialists in reaction said the party regretted to acknowledge that Ujhelyi had decided to quit their ranks.

The party said in a statement that “we are disappointed, but think of István Ujhelyi as a friend” and called on the politician to return his EP mandate.