Socialist Party leader Attila Mesterhazy said on Saturday that the Socialists would emerge stronger after ex-PM Ferenc Gyurcsany forms his own party and parliamentary group, because the opposition force’s lawmakers would no longer be engrossed in an internal struggle.
Mesterhazy said the Socialist election committee had adopted a resolution calling on parliamentary and municipal lawmakers breaking away from the party to hand back their mandates.
The Socialist leader’s demand is symbolic, since the party has no authority to enforce such a demand.
At the same time, Mesterhazy wished Gyurcsany “lots of luck with the work that he is embarking on.”
Gyurcsany, a former Prime Minister, announced he was leaving the Socialist Party and would set up a new parliamentary group after succeeding in persuading the necessary number of lawmakers to join him.
The party, based on his Democratic Coalition, is to be a “Western, civic centre-left” formation with ten lawmakers, Gyurcsany announced Saturday on the DC’s first anniversary.
Gyurcsany, who also used to lead the Socialists, said the new party would stand for “freedom and solidarity”.
Csaba Molnar, a one-time party group leader in parliament, will head the new group, which is to be formed next week.
