Fragmented opposition with no vision

A left-wing analyst thinks efforts to forge an opposition coalition have failed so far and urges all “’democratic anti-Fidesz forces” to come up with a left-liberal-green vision for the post-Orbán era.

In HVG, Zoltán Lakner, a political analyst and occasional advisor to the MSZP, paints a dire picture of the cooperation among opposition parties. He describes their negotiations as a series of attempts by individual leaders to push themselves into the foreground – with candidates Gordon Bajnai (Together-2014) and Attila Mesterházy (MSZP) both waiting for better poll results that would tip the balance in their favour. The polls, however, show that Fidesz was able to increase its support to 25% in the last six months, while the MSZP fell back to 14% and both LMP (who refuse to cooperate) and Bajnai’s party stand at about 5% among respondents. Fidesz has harvested the impact of the first cut in utility costs and do not even appear too worried about the tobacco-shop scandal, Lakner assumes, as they plan to introduce the next stage of utility tariff cuts in June.  Lakner blames the opposition for conducting virtually no discussion about what he calls the “catastrophe-stricken areas of Orbán-led Hungary”: education, healthcare, welfare and the downward spiral of the middle classes. Without a clear and shared vision concerning what Hungary should look like after Orbán, the present opposition does not stand a chance, Lakner suggests.

Tags: Bajnai, LMP, MSZP, opposition