DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsany told a press conference on Friday that the party was preparing to adopt a parliamentary proposal on the matter.

"The country is in far too bad a shape to wait another 15-16 months" until the general elections scheduled for the spring of 2026, Gyurcsany said, adding that the government "is clearly incapable of handling the crisis it has practically created."

Think-tank: Early election not on the cards

The idea of holding an early election in Hungary has no viable political or social basis, an analyst of the Centre for Fundamental Rights told public radio in an interview on Friday.

Levente Szikra noted that opposition Tisza Party leader Peter Magyar had compared the current state of affairs to the situation after former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany made his infamous 2006 Oszod speech, in which he admitted that the government had "lied day and night".

Fidesz, in opposition at the time, demanded an early election, he further noted, adding that Hungary had been mired in a "moral crisis" and the Socialist government had failed to deliver on its promises. But the situation now, he said, bore no comparison to what the country faced under Gyurcsany.

Szikra said the incumbent Fidesz government enjoyed a strong mandate, insisting for example that the Fidesz-Christian-Democrats had won last year's European Parliament election "by a landslide".

Szikra said early elections were a normal part of European democratic politics when a political crisis emerged and the legitimacy of the government and its social support evaporated. "But this isn't something that can be said of Hungary," he said.

Magyar: Tisza Party 'switching to campaign mode'

Tisza Party leader Peter Magyar has declared the second half of April as a "realistic" target period to hold an early general election, saying that the opposition party will switch to "campaign mode" from Jan 6.

In a statement on Thursday, Magyar said the number of unique views of his New Year's speech had reached 2 million. "Tisza's message has reached the vast majority of our compatriots," he added in the statement.

If Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not balk at the initiative, then an early elections "could realistically take place in the second half of April," the statement said.

He said Tisza was stepping up the process of selecting 106 individual parliamentary candidates and finalising the party's governing manifesto.

"The stakes are huge for the future of our families and our country," he said, appealing to supporters to "contribute financially, as volunteers and as experts, according to their capabilities..."

Magyar also said his party would "represent every Hungarian as equals, regardless of origin or party affiliation", adding that: "The homeland comes first."

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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