Endgame within Jobbik?

As the recently deposed chairman of Jobbik leaves his party and announces he is setting up a new one, a pro-government pundit rejoices at the sight of what he calls an increasingly unserious and fragmented opposition.

Fifty days after he resigned as Jobbik chairman (see BudaPost, June 22), Péter Jakab justified his decision to leave Jobbik, on the grounds that when forced to choose between his old party and the people of Hungary, he felt obliged to opt for the latter – and set up a new party. Márton Gyöngyösi, his successor at the helm of Jobbik, accused him of pushing a primitive leftist agenda at the behest of his secretary, a lady ‘who broke up your family’.

On Mandiner, Dániel Kacsoh finds it ridiculous that whenever one of the leaders of the opposition proves to be a loser, he immediately tries to found a new party. Jobbik was the second strongest party in Hungary until just two years ago, with about 20 per cent of the electorate. Now it could hardly enter Parliament on its own. Jakab is not the only unsuccessful leader to set up a new party, Kacsoh continues. Péter Márki-Zay, the losing opposition candidate for Prime Minister is also planning to run for mandates at the helm of a new formation. Opposition parties already had a hard time coordinating their policies when there were six of them, he remarks. With eight competing parties lined up against it, Fidesz can feel more comfortable than ever before.

Tags: Jobbik