Opposition unity scuttled in Budapest

A lberal weekly condemns opposition parties for being unable to unite in the mayoral race in Budapest.

In its weekly lead editorial, Magyar Narancs welcomes a series of early agreements between right and left-wing opposition parties to support single mayoral candidates in various cities around Hungary. They recognised that they only have a chance to defeat Fidesz if they support each other. That co-operation was broken in Budapest, where the left has named its own candidates in most of the 23 districts of the capital without having the LMP and Jobbik on board. All parties have acceptable reasons not to unite with each other, Magyar Narancs admits, and dismisses the conspiracy theory according to which the LMP and Jobbik would consciously play into Fidesz’s hands. ‘They are simply like that’, the editors suggest before concluding that Prime Minister Orbán has many faults, but it would be mistaken to blame him for the opposition’s ‘dangerous and self-destructive idiocy’.

Tags: Fidesz, opposition