Bajnai losing his gamble

A centrist analyst contends that Gordon Bajnai has failed to line the MSZP up behind him, and now the MSZP has the upper hand. A left-wing columnist believes that it is close to impossible to bring the two opposition parties under the same roof.

The MSZP and Bajnai’s Together 2014 have agreed to start negotiations about joint single seat candidates for the 2014 elections. Magyar Nemzet reported that Together 2014 has only 90 candidates for the 106 electoral districts. Together 2014 criticized the MSZP for leaking the information, and added that the list mentioned in the Magyar Nemzet report consisted of local party leaders, not possible candidates.

In his popular blog political analyst Gábor Török rules out any chance for Gordon Bajnai to be PM Orbán’s left-wing challenger at the 2014 election. He thinks his ambitions have been foiled by MSZP leader Attila Mesterházy who stayed calm after Bajnai’s appearance on the political scene, although the former PM in 2012 seemed to gain swift support (see BudaPost November 12, 2012). Mesterházy waited and managed to keep his party under control, while the initial popularity of Bajnai’s new party has slowly waned. Bajnai should have been able to find allies within the MSZP whose task it would have been to defeat Mesterházy. That did not happen, whereupon Gordon Bajnai decided to set up his own party, abandoning his original plan to act as an independent leader uniting left-liberal forces.  In his new position he was forced to clash with the MSZP, which has made it increasingly impossible for him to find allies among the Socialists At this point, Bajnai will probably be left with no option but to line up behind the future Socialist candidate for Prime Minister, Török concludes.

The MSZP and Together 2014 do not seem to be one bit closer to an agreement than they were a year ago, Ervin Tamás writes in Népszabadság. Bajnai’s supporters are unlikely to support a Socialist candidate, while MSZP voters would clearly prefer someone from their own party, Tamás remarks. But even if they could cooperate at the 2014 Parliamentary election, their alliance would not be firm enough to govern, the left-wing commentator believes.

Tags: Bajnai, Mesterházy