Magyar Hírlap bets on Bajnai

The leading commentator of the right-wing daily is convinced that the duel between Gordon Bajnai and Attila Mesterházy is a sham and that ultimately the former will be the left-wing contender for the post of Prime Minister next year.

In Magyar Hírlap, deputy editor László Szentesi Zöldi believes that former “crisis managing” Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai is the pick of the West,  regardless of the personal ambitions of Socialist Party chairman Attila Mesterházy. The tragedy of the Socialist party, he suggests, is that its leader is constantly designated from outside. Three consecutive prime ministers, Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai,  were all outsiders and Liberals rather than Socialists. Szentesi believes that this is a logical consequence of what he thinks the main left-wing campaign financing source is – “George Soros Inc. and the global financial world.” Which is not at all the case with the right wing, he continues. “Can anyone name American billionaires or influential financial groupings that secretly support Fidesz-KDNP?” he asks. Therefore, Szentesi Zöldi argues, nostalgic Socialists plead in vain for a so-called shift to the left, “their foreign sponsors have already made up their minds: their candidate will be Bajnai.” The right-wing pundit predicts that the campaign will be nasty, but the right wing, although it can only “trust in the power and the dignity of the ‘Peace March,’ and which will not be led into the battle by a corrupt maharaja, will be ultimately victorious.”

Tags: Bajnai, Mesterházy, Soros