The Left braces for the municipal elections

A liberal commentator calls rural pro-government voters ‘simpletons’ and urges urban left-wing liberals to educate them. A left-wing analyst thinks that the opposition’s efforts to mobilize through petitions and referenda are counterproductive.

In Heti Világgazdaság, Árpád W. Tóta ponders the chances of the Left in the Autumn municipal election and the possible consequences of the result. The liberal pundit remarks that according to a recent opinion poll, in Budapest and most major cities the joint candidates of the opposition parties have a chance to defeat Fidesz, while Fidesz has a strong lead in the countryside. Tóta attributes this to the differences in voters’ attitudes. He thinks that the urban population is better educated and smarter, while rural voters who are more likely to support Fidesz are simply ‘stupid’. He calls on the Left to listen to rural voters, educate them and offer them a credible vision instead of the government’s ‘poisonous lies’.

168 Óra’s Zoltán Ceglédi deems the opposition’s mobilization strategy of collecting signatures for referenda and petitions, counterproductive. The left-wing commentator acknowledges that raising awareness through such campaigns does increase the Left’s visibility and helps the opposition parties reach out to sympathizers. Ceglédi, however, thinks that such events do not challenge Fidesz popularity. Collecting signatures against the government’s particular decisions, he explains, falls short of offering a detailed political program.

Tags: election, Left, municipalities, opposition