Satirical Party Changes Tack, Fields Candidates in Swing Districts

The Two-tailed Dog Party (MKKP) announced their list for the upcoming elections. As for how things now stand, the satirical party is running 87 candidates + 2 dogs, and contrary to earlier claims and suggestions, they will also do so in some of those districts where a close race is foreseen between the opposition alliance and Fidesz-KDNP.

Fidesz has made it more difficult for the government-critical sides

According to the Hungarian electoral law voted in by Fidesz-KDNP’s parliamentary majority, there should be at least 71 individual candidates in a minimum of 14 counties for parties to field a national list in a general election (and to be eligible for state support).

This left no choice for the opposition but to run jointly (despite plans already in place beforehand that they would have fielded two separate national lists with joint candidates in the districts). The change in law has also reduced the smaller parties’ alternative options.

MKKP to run separately

Still, MKKP leader Gergely Kovács (who is also the party’s local representative in the 12th district) suggested earlier that in those districts where the two major sides are neck-and-neck, they would not field candidates. This is because it had been shown they would attract voters from the opposition in case they ran separately, although a considerable part of MKKP’s voter base said they would not support the opposition if MKKP decided not to run.

Soon after Péter Márki-Zay had been elected to go up against incumbent Viktor Orbán as the opposition alliance’s leader, he reportedly offered one (qualifying) spot for MKKP on the opposition’s list if they stepped back from the elections, which offer Kovács turned down.

Last Thursday, the party’s co-chair, Zsuzsanna Döme (and deputy mayor of the 9th district) said that a decision of the membership recently overruled Kovács’s earlier statement, so they are no longer taking into consideration which are the swing districts and which are not, as this would be controversial, although these aren’t typically Budapest or Pest County districts.

87+2 candidates; but door still open for withdrawals

Together with their 7800-paged electorate program (consisting of their actual program plus six times the text of Tolstoy’s War and Peace), they revealed that they would eventually field 87 candidates and two dogs.

The way things stand at the moment, an MKKP candidate will run, for example:

• in Veszprém County’s 3rd, where Fidesz strongman Tibor Navracsics will clash with the opposition’s Lajos Rig (Jobbik).
• Döme herself will run in Budapest’s 6th electoral district, where a close contest is foreseen between the opposition’s András Jámbor and Fidesz’s Botond Sára.
• Kovács will run in the aforementioned 3rd electoral district to clash with the opposition’s Miklós Hajnal (Momentum) and Fidesz’s Balász Fürjes.
• Komárom-Esztergom County’s 2nd, where Fidesz’s Gábor Erős (who runs instead of Pál Völner after the former deputy justice minister’s bribery scandal) will face the opposition’s Tibor Nunkovics (Jobbik).
• in Békés 1st, where Fidesz’s Tamás Herczeg is predicted to have a hard time with the opposition’s János Stummer (Jobbik).

This, however, is still not set in stone, as Döme has also claimed that if 71 individual candidates will pocket (the required) 500 recommendation slips each (enough for the national list), then they might consider a “tactical withdrawal.”

featured image: Zsuzsanna Döme; via Márton Mónus/MTI