Jobbik’s By-Election Victory Shocks Hungarian Leftist Parties
- 14 Apr 2015 9:00 AM
Radical nationalist Jobbik’s winning Sunday’s by-election in the Tapolca constituency indicates that voters want a different government, however, their victory is a “warning sign”, Ágnes Vadai, deputy head of the Democratic Coalition, said. Viktor Szigetvári, co-leader of the Együtt party, said his party is “not happy” just to see that ruling Fidesz’s policy “has failed”, because “the democratic opposition was running the wrong candidate and in a wrong cooperation”.
By contrast, he referred to another by-election held recently in Veszprém, where the leftist opposition supported an independent candidate, who won the election.” Jobbik’s gaining ground is a problem, and the democratic opposition cannot rejoice”, Szigetvári added.
Bence Tordai, spokesman for the Dialogue for Hungary party, called it “shocking” that an “extreme right party, which promotes (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s interests” won the elections.
Tordai also advocated maintaining the “Veszprém model” in which “both the old Left and the new Left” supported the same candidate, whereas he said he saw no such cooperation on Sunday. According to the Liberals, Jobbik’s win was “shameful” for the country.
The democratic opposition should make it clear that those voters that who want a change of government and want Hungary to belong to the western world must support the Liberals and the democratic Left, Liberal leader Gábor Fodor said.
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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