Following yesterday’s passing of the 2010 budget with the help of the Free Democrats, Free Democrat Party Chairman Attila Retkes (pictured) held a press conference to announce he was dissolving his party’s parliamentary faction, index.hu reports. According to Retkes, the party leadership had decided that the party’s position on the 2010 budget was to oppose it, but the majority of the Free Democrat MPs led by former party chairman and current faction leader János Kóka voted in favor of it.
Since his election to the position of party chairman after Gábor Fodor stepped down, Retkes has tried to move the party in a more “national-liberal” direction, since the policies favored by Fodor and to a greater extent Kóka mirrored those of the unpopular Socialists. According to law, however, Retkes can’t actually dissolve the faction, and the current Free Democrat MPs will continue to function as the Free Democrat’s parliamentary faction until elections next year.
At a press conference held in front of parliament, Retkes said that those who voted in favor of the budget would not be expelled from the party, but also would not feature on its electoral list next year. Normally this would be considered punishment, except that thanks to János Kóka, the party won’t be making it into parliament next year regardless of who represents them.
