This week, Hungarian opposition parties LMP (Politics Can Be Different) and Momentum seemed to edge towards an alliance ahead of April’s parliamentary elections, as both groups’ leaders made comments welcoming such cooperation.
While it has ruled out working with other parties in the past, Bernadett Szél, LMP’s PM candidate (who some view as the most promising left-wing alternative to Viktor Orbán), recently wrote a letter to Momentum leader András Fekete-Győr about
a potential alliance for the upcoming 2018 elections.
And in an interview this week on news blog Azonnali, Szél insisted that her intentions were quite serious with regards to working together with Momentum, a group which came into the political spotlight last year with its successful signature-collection drive for a referendum on Budapest’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. The signature drive was a massive success, with around 266,000 signatures collected; shortly thereafter, the Hungarian government and the Budapest City Council decided to officially withdraw Budapest’s bid.
In her interview, Szél said that she regretted that her letter had leaked to the media, and argued that under no circumstances was this an attempt to undermine Fekete-Győr. In addition, she described a potential alliance as a “win-win” situation for the two parties. You can view her interview, in Hungarian, below:
For his part, Momentum leader Fekete-Győr cautiously signaled his party’s willingness to cooperate with LMP, despite its official stance against such collaboration. In a press release, the young politician wrote that Momentum is
Open to dialogue between the two parties, but we would like to concentrate first and foremost on voters.
Fekete-Győr added that both Momentum and LMP need to “convince as many disenchanted Hungarians as possible of the importance of the elections.” This sentiment was welcomed by LMP’s official spokesman, who added that the party eagerly awaits the Momentum leader’s reply to Szél’s letter.
News of a potential alliance between LMP and Momentum comes after weeks of polling have shown that the once highly-popular Momentum has had a hard time finding its footing in this election season, with support hovering at just 2-3% amid rumors of infighting among the young group’s leadership.
Via mno.hu, index.hu, 444.hu, and azzonali.hu
Images via 24.hu