Gyurcsány to initiate talks with Botka

Budapest (MTI) – Ferenc Gyurcsány, the chairman of the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), on Saturday said he would initiate talks next week with László Botka, the Socialist Party’s prime ministerial candidate.

There is no need to fear a coalition, the ex-prime minister said, speaking at a meeting of DK organisations before the Socialists’ election of their candidate for prime minister.

Extending his congratulations in advance to the Socialist mayor of Szeged and wishing him the best of luck, Gyurcsány evoked the presidential election of 2005, when he said the Socialists had insisted on their own candidate, Katalin Szili, even though they had known she would not be elected because of their coalition partner’s opposition.

Arguing in favour of cooperation, Gyurcsány termed next year’s vote a historic election, where voters would decide on whether “we should go in the direction that the prime minister has chosen” or “westwards”. The only chance to win the 2018 election is for as many of the “democratic parties” to take part in a fair cooperation as possible, he said.