Gergely Karácsony named by MSZP as candidate for PM
December 12th, 2017A pro-government commentator pokes fun at the blunders following the nomination of an official of another party as the prime ministerial candidate of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP).
On Sunday, after an MSZP rally where the participants discussed the electoral platform of the Socialist Party, Gergely Karácsony, an ‘outsider’ was named as the Socialist Party’s preferred candidate for PM in the 2018 Parliamentary election. That choices has yet to be confirmed by the party congress in January. Karácsony is currently the Mayor of the Budapest 14th district, and a leading member of the tiny Párbeszéd (Dialogue) party. On the same day, a recording was leaked in which Karácsony used coarse language expressing his regret over having accepted the nomination.
In a sarcastic column, Magyar Idők’s Dávid Megyeri calls Mr Karácsony a ‘magic weapon’ who is supposed to solve the MSZP’s leadership crisis. Megyeri finds it revealing that the Socialists had to choose their frontrunner from among the leaders of the small parties whose constituency is measured at around one per cent of the electorate. It is no mere coincidence, he remarks, that party chairman Gyula Molnár introduced Mr Karácsony as chairman of another small party, Együtt (Together). He describes the position the Socialists have found themselves in as tragically comic, and believes that Karácsony’s nomination would perfectly fit into a Monty Python show. As for its tragic side, Megyeri suggests that the party’s programme, which promises what he regards as irresponsible welfare expenditures, would produce a huge public deficit.