January 5th, 2010

Liberal leader says party to remain in Parliament, despite breakup

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The liberal Free Democrats (SZDSZ) seek to retain their seats in Hungary’s next Parliament to be elected in the spring, party leader Attila Retkes told MTI in an interview published on Tuesday.

He said that the liberals, now in opposition, would be able to field candidates in all the 176 individual constituencies, and acquire 20 to 25 parliamentary mandates, mostly from national and regional lists.

At present the party, which formed a governing coalition with the Socialists from 2002 to 2008, has 19 seats in Parliament.

Retkes said the Free Democrats, whom he called the only truly liberal force in Hungary, had already chosen someone to top their national list but declined to disclose the candidate’s name before January 11.

Asked about the party leaders’ conflict with the parliamentary group, Retkes said that the majority of the Free Democrat MPs continued even last autumn with what he called an incorrect policy of going along to the end with the Socialists and Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai. “We no longer consider the parliamentary group as of our own,” he said.

In defiance of party leaders, most Free Democrat MPs supported Bajnai’s crisis-management measures and approved the 2010 budget bill.

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3 Comments

  1. wolfi says:
    January 5, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    In Germany we call this:
    “Pfeifen im Walde” -
    just found the translation:
    “whistling past the graveyard”

  2. Whistleblower says:
    January 5, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    MSZP and SZDSZ are both finished as political
    forces. They are both in disgrace for the appalling mess this country is now in.
    Huge borrowings from the IMF/EU have not helped.
    In fact, the net result of these borrowings is the austerity package introduced by Bajnai at the behest of IMF/EU that we all now have to grin and bear.
    This is called “whistling down the wind”!

  3. Viking says:
    January 5, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    Huge borrowings from the IMF/EU have not helped.
    In fact, the net result of these borrowings is the austerity package introduced by Bajnai
    Whistleblower at January 5, 2010 1:33 PM
    —
    And the austerity package would have been smaller and easier without the IMF/EU-loans?
    -
    In my book the austerity package was a pre-requisite for the loans, but such details is sooo easy forgotten, when making a point.