Gyurcsány sets deadline for Socialists to reconsider their stance

A new centrist internet opinion site thinks Ferenc Gyurcsány is unlikely to be welcomed in the opposition alliance although he does offer a clear liberal vision. The leading left-wing daily agrees: Gyurcsány does not seem to understand that the Socialists never back down under external pressure.

After the National Board of the Socialist Party refused to re-open negotiations with DK (see BudaPost November 26), its leader, former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány said he would wait until 10 December for the Socialists to reconsider their position. In the event that his person is an obstacle to an alliance with the Socialists and Together-2014, he added, he will take the appropriate steps – but only after negotiations have begun.

VS.hu, a new internet news portal believes that Gyurcsány is likely to “appear alone on the billboards, despite Fidesz efforts to depict him as the force behind Mesterházy and Bajnai”. In his editorial closing a debate on VS on Gyurcsány’s role in Hungarian politics, editor Péter Techet suggests that the potential allies, Attila Mesterházy, a former secretary of state under Gyurcsány, and Gordon Bajnai, PM candidate of Together-2014 and a former Gyurcsány era cabinet minister are united in their antagonism to including their former boss in their alliance. He finds it difficult to define what DK really is, with his supporters behaving as “his sect”, while “pensioners on a tight budget enthuse over (former SZDSZ MP, economist) Tamás Bauer’s neoliberal ideas”. Yet, he admits that DK is indeed unique in the political landscape: it is openly liberal in its view of the economy as well as openly secular, and it rejects the ethnic definition of national identity. It is far from clear, however, if he will emerge as the genuine antithesis of Orbán or as the blank bullet in the barrel.

Népszabadság’s weekend editorial castigates Gyurcsány for “apparently failing to understand the situation”. One would expect a former Socialist leader to realise that the Socialist party never backs down under external pressure, the authors write, but Gyurcsány still seems to believe that his self-described “manly behaviour” will promote his cause. Socialists may be wrong to reject him, the daily writes, but Gyurcsány’s pressure only contributes to their resentment. If he really means what he says, and is willing to “make a generous offer”, and step aside if his person is the obstacle to co-operation, it is time he made that generous offer, Népszabadság suggests.

Tags: Bajnai, Gyurcsány, Mesterházy