A liberal view of the self-defeating left

A liberal analyst thinks Fidesz owes its comfortable lead in opinion polls to the weakness of the left-wing opposition.
“A year ago it looked as though Fidesz had already doomed itself to failure: Now it is the left wing that is doing the same,” philosopher Zoltán Miklósi complains in Szuverén.
At the end of 2012, with the economy sinking again into recession, student protests “shaking up public opinion” and over seventy per cent of respondents dissatisfied with the government, a credible opposition could have turned the tide in its own favour. Instead, Miklósi continues, Fidesz has managed to bolster its position, because the left is unable to offer a clear alternative. He thinks the new Socialist élite is even greyer than the old guard, while Gordon Bajnai’s Together 2014 movement is still hesitant about its own identity. All this has conspired to bring Ferenc Gyurcsány’s Democratic Coalition into the game. Miklósi describes Mr Gyurcsány as a talented trouble-maker whom it is difficult to ignore but not advisable to take on board, as proven by his performance at the joint opposition rally on October 23rd (See BudaPost, October 25 and 28). Miklósi concludes that since “PM Orbán’s main strength is the weakness of the opposition”, any improvement must be done with the existing leaders – in the absence of alternative left-wing figures.

Tags: Gyurcsány, opposition