According to a moderate conservative fact-finding journalist, the beleaguered former PM and Socialist Party chairman Ferenc Gyurcsány intends to set up a broad left-wing coalition, with his immediate successor, Gordon Bajnai as PM Viktor Orbán’s challenger. READ MORE
Journalists and political analysts of both leftist and conservative inclinations wonder who might emerge as a rival to Viktor Orbán either as prime minister or as right-wing leader. The centre-right governing coalition is losing support, but the opposition parties have failed so far to increase their own popularity. READ MORE
According to recent surveys, most young Hungarians support Fidesz. Left-wing analysts, and a right wing blogger share the view that the Socialists and the Liberals are unable to offer their supporters a civic culture with which they could identify. READ MORE
It might be an appeal for a friendly gesture or the beginning of a war for the left-wing vote, it depends on your choice of commentator. The fact of the matter is that the left-liberal Democratic Charter has written an open letter asking the floor leader of LMP, András Schiffer to withdraw the criminal complaint he lodged two years ago against the then PM Ferenc Gyurcsány. READ MORE
The main left wing daily Népszabadság revives the idea of an alliance between the left and the far right, in order to defeat PM Viktor Orbán and undo his reforms – despite the fact that an initiative on these lines was rejected as unrealistic and counterproductive by all commentators and possible protagonists alike. In another sign of just how bitter political enmities are, the commentator evokes the example of an anti-Nazi alliance during World War II to make his case. READ MORE
The debate over the electoral reform proposed by Fidesz continues with an editorial in Magyar Nemzet, which blames the left wing for seeking foreign support in order to oust the present government, rather than winning over Hungarian voters. READ MORE
A green leader’s proposal that a “technical election alliance” be established between right and left wing opposition parties in order to revoke recent constitutional changes, finds little sympathy among media commentators, but some do not dismiss the idea out of hand. READ MORE
Hungary simply cannot afford to spend twice as much on its debt-servicing, as it earns from the growth of its GDP– a pro-government analyst remarks, in defence of the legislative policies of the ruling coalition. READ MORE
The smallest party in Parliament (16 seats), Politics Can Be Different (LMP) is planning a referendum to challenge the government’s welfare cuts and the reduction of employees’ rights. Commentators at the liberal webmagazine Hírszerző suggest that LMP wants to distance itself both from the governing centre-right parties and at the same time from the Socialists with whom they share the opposition benches. READ MORE