Intellectuals call for Left-Jobbik alliance
February 1st, 2018As 26 intellectuals call on voters to cast their ballots for the strongest opposition candidate in individual constituencies, one blogger thinks they have failed to consider what might happen on the day after the election. An analyst thinks believes that such across-the-board opposition collaboration does constitute a real threat to Fidesz.
In an open letter published in Magyar Nemzet, a group of intellectuals, including well-known liberal personalities as well as four conservatives, invited opposition parties to tell their voters to cast their ballots for the strongest opposition candidates. The authors proposed them to state clearly that they remain opponents, but that they must unite to face the incumbent government.
On Mandiner, Malakka pokes fun at the initiative. He deems it absurd for a party to ask its own voters not to vote for its own candidates, especially if the idea is to form a joint government with parties they continue to consider as adversaries.
In Magyar Nemzet, political analyst Attila Tibor Nagy thinks however that an alliance between the left-liberal side and Jobbik is a real threat to the government. Fidesz’s rule has been safe because of the irreconcilable differences within the opposition, he explains. But Jobbik’s recent turn towards the centre has changed the political landscape and the former radical right-wing party is less and less unacceptable on the left. Nagy thinks nevertheless that time is too short before the elections for a broad opposition to materialise. Moreover, even within the Left, coalition talks are progressing extremely slowly, he remarks.