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Socialists in Hungary See Primaries as Only Way Forward for Opposition

• 15 Dec 2022 10:55 AM
• Hungary Matters

The co-leader of the opposition Socialist Party has said it would be difficult to envisage any other way than primaries to select candidates for the 2024 local government elections.

The Socialists will initiate dialogue with the other “democratic opposition parties” on conducting primaries early next year, Ágnes Kunhalmi said on Wednesday.

Primary votes will not be needed in every constituency, only where a consensus on a candidate has not been reached. Parties should avoid dictating centrally who candidates are, she added at a background briefing of journalists.

Each ruling Fidesz candidate should face a single opposition challenger, she emphasised. Meanwhile, Kunhalmi said the reason for the opposition’s election defeat in the spring was not connected with the primaries but rather with the opposition’s response to the war in Ukraine.

Co-leader Imre Komjáthi said the Socialists were now building up the party intensively, adding that they were attracting new members and new grassroots organisations were being formed.


MTI Photo: Tibor Illyés

The Socialists will campaign in the 2024 European parliamentary elections alone, though the party is also open to cooperation with other opposition forces, he said.

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