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Left-wing Veszprém by-election candidate in crossfire

February 13th, 2015

Commentators both on Left and Right find it highly controversial or even absurd that in the Veszprém by-election the Left supports a libertarian candidate who earlier suggested that voting rights should be conditional on tax payment and that primary education as well as health care should be privatized.

Hír TV unearthed 2-year old Facebook comments and blog entries by Zoltán Kész, the left-wing candidate at the Veszprém by-election scheduled for February 22. In those comments, Kész advocated libertarian pro-market ideas, and suggested that those who do not pay taxes should not have the right to vote. Kész also supported the idea that health care and even primary education should be entrusted to competing private enterprises.

In Magyar Hírlap, Miklós Ugró finds it absurd that the Left could not find a left-wing joint candidate, and chose to support an out-and-out free market liberal in the Veszprém by-election. The conservative columnist wonders to what extent Kész’ liberal capitalist ideas can be squared with social democratic principles of equal opportunity.

Supporting a radical pro-market candidate is contrary to the ideology of the Left, István Tanács comments in Népszabadság. The left-wing columnist believes that the Left should focus on middle class voters who expect welfare and better life conditions. The lofty libertarian pro-market ideas advocated by Kész contradict the main principles of the Left and undermine the credibility of leftist anti-poverty declarations, Tanács warns.

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