Hungary’s Socialist Lick Wounds, Rivals Satisfied

  • 26 May 2014 9:00 AM
Hungary’s Socialist Lick Wounds, Rivals Satisfied
Socialist Party leader Attila Mesterházy said that the party’s presidium would offer its resignation to the board after the party’s poor EP election showing. The radical nationalist Jobbik party has managed to meet its goal in the European election, becoming Hungary’s second power, party leader Gábor Vona declared.

He said one of the important messages of the EP election for domestic politics was that Jobbik is now the second power and that the Socialists have collapsed. It follows that Jobbik can become Fidesz’s challenger -- “a great responsibility,” Vona said.

The success of eurosceptic, eurorealist parties throughout Europe also proves that “all of us would like to have a common Europe but something totally different from what is offered to us now,” Vona said. Ferenc Gyurcsány, the Democratic Coalition’s leader, said the result would embolden his leftist party to continue playing a “very determining role in opposition,” and to be the “fiercest enemy of [PM Viktor] Orbán’s tyranny”.

The E-PM alliance co-leader Gordon Bajnai said he was “satisfied and proud” of E-PM’s showing. LMP list-leader Tamás Meszerics said that as things stand now, Hungary would have a green eurodeputy. The green LMP party scored 5.01 percent of votes nationwide, just above the threshold for a mandate.

The figure is based on preliminary results after 99.99 percent of votes were counted. Votes cast abroad could influence whether or not LMP gets into the European Parliament. Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said that all Hungarians will have strong national representation in the European Parliament in the next cycle. It is of key importance that Transcarpathia in western Ukraine and Vojvodina would be sending representatives to the EP as well, he added.

Fidesz has shown that it can count on its core support, proven by the fact that the party won with such a low turnout, political analyst Ágoston Sámuel Mráz of the Nézopont Institute said.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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Source of photo: ORIGO

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