A right-wing take on left-wing dilemmas

A pro-government pundit thinks left-wing opinion leaders don’t understand how politics works when they urge competing left-wing leaders to agree on how to share power and candidates for next year’s elections.

In Heti Válasz (print edition), editor Gábor Borókai thinks leadership of a broad alliance cannot be the fruit of behind the scenes bargaining – it takes sustained effort and open competition to become an uncontested leader. A series of left-wing pundits have sharply criticised Socialist Party Chairman Attila Mesterházy for turning down coalition offers by minor left-wing groupings, claiming that the left must be united in the run up to the elections. Borókai thinks they simply underestimate Mesterházy’s feat in reorganising his party after its crushing defeat in 2010 and mistakenly believe that other left-wing personalities have a natural right to be his equals. Borókai compares politics to farming, and remarks that famers never welcome those who just appear in the fields after harvest to collect their supposed share. He reminds his left-wing colleagues that it took Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party long years of open competition and patient labour to establish themselves as the main representatives of the right wing. If those on the left who hope to replace competition with behind the scenes bargaining are successful, Borókai concludes, “Viktor Orbán will remain without a real challenger for a long time to come.”

Tags: Mesterházy, opposition