In an interview on HírTV’s Egyenesen (Straight) program, Balázs said that although there had been no official coordination with the opposition, he would not reject being the prime ministerial candidate of an electoral alliance that includes other parties than merely the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and Democratic Coalition (DK). He claimed that he had discussed this possibility with the background intelligentsia of the left-wing parties on numerous occasions.

Balázs said the opposition has many talented politicians and policy experts who could form an effective unity government that could change the current nose-diving government, if only the parties stopped infighting.

Magyar Nemzet contacted both MSZP and DK for comments on the possibility of backing Balázs. According to the newspaper’s sources, although the leadership of MSZP has not discussed Balázs’s role, the party could support his candidacy. The sources also noted that according to an internal survey conducted a couple of months ago when László Botka was still MSZP’s official prime ministerial candidate, left-wing voters would like to see a moderate, consensus-seeking, integrative and jovial character leading the opposition. Péter Balázs, they said, is such a character. Magyar Nemzet’s sources also claimed that other parties could not say no to an offer like this.

Meanwhile, former prime minister and chair of DK Ferenc Gyurcsány told atv.hu that although he thinks the future of the left-wing opposition is in a “big, open Democratic Party”, his party wants to settle a deal with MSZP about individual constituency candidates “not a joint party list, not a joint prime ministerial candidate.”

According to Magyar Nemzet’s DK sources, in the current political climate it is indeed in DK’s interest to compete alone in the spring 2018 election as the party might become the leading force of the left wing, while MSZP is still trying to recover from the fallout surrounding Botka’s resignation.

Other parties of the so-called “democratic opposition” – namely minus far-right Jobbik – have yet to comment on Balázs’s offer.

Source: The Budapest Beacon

Republished with permission