Fragmented opposition ‘too weak’ to face the challenges of the New Year?

A left-wing columnist urges opposition parties to unite before they lose the positions they conquered in the 2019 municipal elections.

In Népszava, Gábor Czene laments the state of the opposition with just six months to go to the municipal elections. After a crushing defeat by Fidesz in last year’s parliamentary elections, he writes, the opposition alliance fell apart and the Democratic Coalition remains the only one that can be sure of passing the 5 percent threshold to get into the European Parliament in June 2024 when MEPs will be elected along with mayors and local councillors. The rest either hover around the 5 percent limit or far below, Czene remarks. He believes there is an urgent need to forget grievances and rebuild their alliance, or surely lose many of the significant positions they won in Hungary’s main cities at the last municipal elections. He praises the Democratic Coalition for refraining to respond in kind to the vitriolic criticism from Momentum, as a first step towards reconciliation. (For Momentum’s attack on the DK see BudaPost, November 28.)

Tags: elections, opposition