Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky called on liberal Free Democrat party leader Gabor Fodor and the party’s parliamentary group leader Janos Koka to stop fighting over the post of group leader, saying that it imperiled the party’s very existence, daily Nepszabadsag said on Saturday.
Demszky, a former party leader, asked the two duelling politicians to withdraw from fighting before the election of the party’s chairman in the summer, said the paper.
The liberal party, which left the coalition with the Socialists in May due to a disagreement over the pace of reforms, is polling around 1 percent, well short of the 5 percent threshold for seats in parliament.
Fodor, a former environment minister, is trying to appeal to traditional party supporters who became disaffected when the party veered towards an economically liberal force under Koka, who was narrowly beaten in a leadership re-election by Fodor in the summer.
Fodor is in the process of remolding the party into a more socially conscious and environmentally clued-up political force.
“…remolding the party into a more socially conscious and environmentally clued-up political force.” That’s great, but Hungary has more fundamental issues to address first. Also, ‘clued-up’ sounds awful here, are they writing for teenagers? The collocation is ‘environmentally aware’. Let’s face it, it’s the kind of race that no-one cares who wins, both are a waste of space.