Socialists on the verge of a split
October 17th, 2011The major left wing daily compares Ferenc Gyurcsány’s position to the Palikot Movement in Poland, while a right wing publicist believes that the former PM will end up disintegrating the Socialist Party.
The Socialist Party is on the verge of a split, after the director of the Democratic Coalition Platform headed by Ferenc Gyurcsány said in an interview that the platform is considering forming a new parliamentary group. A meeting on Thursday failed to resolve the problem, and the Socialist floor leader Attila Mesterházy has given members of the party’s parliamentary group until Monday, to tell him whether or not they intend to remain on the party benches.
The Hungarian Solidarity Movement (See BudaPost, October 6.) and the Polish Palikot Movement both have a lesson to teach Ferenc Gyurcsány – Endre Aczél writes in Népszabadság. The former clearly shows that hundreds of thousands of Hungarians are in dire need of a political movement, while the latter has proved that youth on the political left turn towards liberalism, once they lose faith in the left.
The Polish Socialist Party’s „appalling election results proved to what extent an extravagant millionaire politician could win the hearts of the educated youth on the left,” – writes Endre Aczél, adding that Gyurcsány will never have enough space to reform the Hungarian Socialists. He can only be the leader of the liberals and liberal conservatives, and will only be able to cooperate in future with the Socalist Party in that capacity. Just as Palikot will cooperate with Donald Tusk.
It is no surprise that the Socialist Party split is devoid of any elegance or generosity –writes deputy editor Szabolcs Szerető in Magyar Nemzet. The publicist remarks that the former PM and party leader shows no loyalty whatsoever towards his successors, but expects (and receives) full solidarity from them in his ongoing legal case. (The public prosecutor has charged him with abuse of office in connection with a land-swap deal related to a controversial casino project. See BudaPost, October 5.)
„The chainsaw killer of the Hungarian left” clearly feels his party is too straight, but doesn’t want to leave, he wants to be excluded – believes Szabolcs Szerető, adding „I’m not sure whether the government deserves such an opposition.”