Opposition parties working to further own positions

With just a few months to go until Hungary’s general election, the leaders of neither the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition nor Jobbik are concerned with winning in the spring, but are instead focused on furthering their own positions within the opposition, a political scientist said on Monday.

Speaking to public news channel M1, Béla Galló said Jobbik’s change of image with a focus on becoming a people’s party had been too sudden and lacked credibility. It has not brought them any gains in the polls and some members making up the party’s radical “old guard” had even revolted against Gábor Vona’s attempt to move Jobbik towards the centre, Galló said.

He said business magnate Lajos Simicska’s alleged financial backing of Jobbik had been in vain because the party had misread the political situation in the country and was far from being a contender to ruling Fidesz.