Conflicting takes on the elections in Poland
October 19th, 2023A former liberal diplomat welcomes the victory of the opposition in Poland, while a pro-government commentator warns the Hungarian Left that it was not PM Orbán who lost his seat in Poland.
On Klubrádió, István Szent-Iványi described the outcome of the elections in Poland as a victory for forces which belong to the European mainstream. The former diplomat adds that with the defeat of the right-wing government in Warsaw, Hungary’s leaders will lose a key ally in their confrontation with Brussels, just as they hope to find a new ally in Slovakia. The new Slovak government, however, he said includes former Prime Minister Pellegrini’s Hlas, a ‘pro-European’ Social Democrat party which wants no change in the country’s stance on international politics.
On Pesti Srácok, Zsolt Jeszenszky pokes fun at opposition leaders in Hungary who celebrate the defeat of the right-wing government in Poland as if it were PM Orbán who was voted out of government there. What a pity, he adds sarcastically, that in Hungary they are simply no match for the right-wing government. Meanwhile, he admits that the result of the election in Poland is bad news for the pro-government camp in Hungary. Nevertheless, he doesn’t believe that even the new Polish government can embrace mass immigration or gender ideology, as such policies would be passionately rejected by the overwhelming majority of the public there.