Socialist PM candidate Botka outlines new left-wing policy

László Botka, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Socialists, outlined a new left-wing policy that he said is guided by fairness, at a conference in Szeged, in southern Hungary, on Saturday.

Botka addressed an event dubbed “For a Just Hungary!” which was attended by about hundred leading intellectuals of Hungary’s new Left including sociologists, philosophers and lawyers, as well as former and current leaders of the Socialist Party.

After the event, Botka said he considered it the gravest problem that over the past seven years Fidesz had turned Hungary into a country which operates under an unjust system. Citing surveys, he said that this opinion is shared by 80 percent of Hungarians.

Botka called on the participants as well as “all other democrats” wanting to replace the government to set up a community of “patriotic democrats” promoting their own set of values.

The Socialist PM candidate outlined ten basic principles to guide the left, first of all the need that the well-off should have a bigger share of the public burden as of next year.