BREAKING NEWS – Socialist Leader Mesterhazy Resigns – UPDATE

Budapest, May 29 (MTI) – Attila Mesterhazy resigned from his posts of Socialist Party chairman and parliamentary group leader today.

He said he would not compete for the post of party leader in the upcoming re-election of officials.

Mesterhazy said he assumed full responsibility for his party’s crushing defeats in the general election on April 6 and the European elections on May 25.

“In view of my responsibility to the Socialists, I have made this decision to enable the party’s national board on Saturday to make a decision in line with the statutes, taking into consideration the interests of the local council elections,” he said. He added that he would fully support the Socialist Party and its new leader.

According to the opposition E-PM, the results of the recent European election have created a new situation in which all leftist parties should reconsider their own position and elect new officials, E-PM’s Gergely Karacsony told a press conference. He added, however, that the E-PM alliance does not wish to comment on internal affairs of other parties.

Andras Schiffer, co-leader of green LMP, called Mesterhazy a fair political opponent, and said that his resignation could be expected in light of the Socialists’ poor performance in the EP election. He added that he thought it was not Mesterhazy alone who should be blamed for the “hopeless-looking” situation the Socialists were in, but also the party’s previous governments and “veteran Socialists Mesterhazy inherited”.