March 4th, 2017
A conservative pundit finds it bewildering that Hungary’s left-liberal intelligentsia is throwing its moral weight behind the movement which scuppered Budapest’s 2024 Olympic bid. By running for Parliament, he believes, Momo will steal critical votes from the Left.
On Mandiner, Gábor Bencsik predicts that in 2018 liberal intellectuals will be sorry that they enthusiastically welcomed and promoted Momentum as a new force capable of mobilising protesters against the right-wing government. They exhorted the left-wing parties to collect signatures for the anti-Olympics referendum, and thus helped a dangerous competitor emerge. Párbeszéd (Dialogue) and Együtt (Together) whose support is below one per cent, will probably not win a single seat in Parliament anyway. LMP had just 25 thousand votes more than the strict minimum to pass the 5 per cent threshold and has lost support since. As Bencsik sees it, Momentum, like these three groups, is just another competitor for the meagre legacy of SZDSZ, the defunct liberal party and as such that will seal their fate. In some key urban areas, especially in Budapest, Momentum may be strong enough to deny crucial votes and therefore parliamentary seats to the Socialist Party, the only left-wing force that runs a chance of winning a few individual constituencies, in addition to the mandates to be won with its party list. Bencsik thinks therefore that the only winner in this game is the governing Fidesz party.
Tags: elections, Left, Momentum
