Hungary's ruling Socialist party's presidium will recommend Attila Mesterhazy as the party's prime minister candidate in the 2010 general elections, party leader Ildiko Lendvai told the press on Tuesday.

Mesterhazy, the party's deputy leader and parliamentary group leader, will be recommended to the Socialists' steering board for approval at a meeting on December 12.

Support for Mesterhazy was unanimous among presidium members, who consulted with regional party leaders, too, Lendvai said. She added that the choice fell on Mesterhazy because he is a "man of the future" who can help frame the measures for Hungary's coming out of the economic crisis. Mesterhazy, 35, has supported the government's anti-crisis programme, he is popular within leftist circles, but his democratic commitment is also acknowledged beyond the party, Lendvai said.

Mesterhazy said he has accepted the nomination.

"I will be a tough opponent for the moderate right and uncompromising against the radical right," he said. He added that he accepted the offer because he believes the Socialists can regain lost trust in the country with a new politics that can appeal to "centrist, sober, democratic, conscientious voters".

He is expected to perform no smaller task than to coordinate an effective campaign next year to steer the party back to its left-wing origins and recapture disillusioned voters as the party continues to lag far behind main rival Fidesz in polls.

Fidesz staff leader Peter Szijjarto said that Mesterhazy's nomination indicated the survival of the era of prime ministers Ferenc Gyurcsany and Gordon Bajnai.

Socialist parliamentary leader Mesterhazy is an equivalent of the past, the Gyurcsany-Bajnai era, and the austerity measures that embitter the life of people and prevent Hungary's growth in the coming period, he said.

"Mesterhazy belongs to the past which Hungarians would like to put an end to," Szijjarto said, suggesting that with this candidate the Socialists try to pave the way to Gyurcsany's return to power.