The Socialist leader also said that he intends to fundamentally change his party’s parliamentary work and the way it communicates. Molnár said he wanted to open up his party to civil organisations and trade unions. He said the party needed to make its outward communication “more professional”.

One thing that the party did wrong in the past, he said, was that it had the same people in charge of putting together its strategy and communication plan.

Regarding the Socialist Party’s work in parliament, he said that in the future, the group should not take part in work “that is falsely presented” as the democratic functioning of the national assembly.

He said it was enough for his group to concentrate only on the 10-15 issues that serve the nation’s and the party’s interests and effectively boycott everything else.

He said his party would not cooperate with the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance in parliament on matters that make it look like they have secret agreements in place.

He named education, health care, labour and social issues concerning women, children and pensioners as the most important issues for his party.

Molnár said his first trips abroad as party leader would be to Transylvania, Slovakia and then Brussels. Molnár was elected as the Socialist Party’s new chairman at its weekend congress, defeating former leader József Tóbiás.

Also on Saturday, Botka was replaced by former Socialist leader István Hiller as the head of the party’s national board.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Kelemen Zoltán Gergely