Left-wing parties still fighting each other
December 13th, 2017A left-wing commentator explains the MSZP’s decision to nominate Párbeszéd‘s Gergely Karácsony as candidate for PM as proof that left-wing parties, including the Socialists, have lost any hope of winning the April election.
Left-wing parties no longer consider defeating Fidesz their main objective in next year’s parliamentary election, Szabolcs Dull in Index comments on Gergely Karácsony’s nomination as Socialist candidate for PM (see BudaPost December 12). The liberal columnist thinks that the smaller left-wing and liberal parties (Együtt, Párbeszéd, Momentum and the Liberals) are fighting for their own survival, without any hope of challenging the governing party any time soon. The LMP dismisses cooperation with other left-wing parties as it is likely to pass the parliamentary threshold. Its leaders hope that they can replace the MSZP one day as the leading force on the Left. Gyurcsány’s Democratic Coalition pursues a similar project, but wants to achieve this with the opposite strategy – to run jointly with the Socialists, Dull contends. He interprets the MSZP’s nomination of Gergely Karácsony as candidate for Prime Minister as acknowledgement of the party’s inability to defeat Fidesz. He believes that at this point, MSZP MPs want to secure their own seats in the Parliament, and have no aims or expectations beyond that.