Socialist PM candidate Mesterházy vows to turn party’s fortunes around

Socialist party group leader Attila Mesterhazy told MTI in an interview that he was prepared to undertake the responsibility of leading the party into the general election next spring as the party’s prime-minister candidate, saying that it was not too late to turn the party’s fortunes around.

Mesterhazy said that 4-5 months was a long time in politics and Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai had managed to turn the country’s finances around in the same amount of time. With the backing of the Socialists, Bajnai has saved the country from bankruptcy, he said.

Further, in the same timeframe, the opposition was capable of tripping up, he said. Fidesz will have to change and make more realistic promises to voters, he added.

The Socialists are expected to choose a PM-candidate in the next few days.

Asked if he believed a good result for the Socialists would be to deny Fidesz a two-thirds majority, he said that there was no middle ground. The party must believe in winning.

Mesterhazy said that the Socialists would make realistic promises in their campaign, and they would seek to find solutions to the everyday problems of ordinary people.

He said that it was possible that populism secured votes faster but he believed that it was also possible to engage in constructive politics, and doing so would pay dividends.

The parliamentary group leader said that the Socialists stood behind initiatives to fight corruption and had supported a bill to straighten out party financing while Fidesz had rejected the bill.

Fidesz is widely expected to win the general election next spring on the basis of current polling figures.