Main Parties Fighting in Hungarian Election
May 4, 1998 - 0:0
BUDAPEST Twelve parties will compete in the first round of legislative elections in Hungary on May 10. Two previous general elections have been held in Hungary since the end of communism, in 1990 and 1994. In all, 26 parties and 1,602 candidates will be looking for support from the country's eight million voters in a quest for places in the 386-seat Parliament. Herewith thumbnail sketches of the four main parties.
- Premier Gyula Horn's Socialist Party (MSZP) is the leader of the current center-right governing coalition. Latest opinion polls give the MSZP 31-36 percent of the vote. Born from the reformed communists of the one-time pro-Soviet Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP), the party has in four years comprehensively overhauled the economy and attracted to Hungary 40 percent of the foreign capital invested in the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. The Socialists are widely seen as the key force behind Hungary's push to be in the first wave of ex-communist countries to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
They are committed to giving parliamentary representation to the ethnic minorities who make 10 percent of Hungary's population. On the economy, they project slow but steady growth. Last year this stood at 4.4 percent. - Viktor Orban's right-wing opposition Federation of Young Democrats (FIDESZ-MPP) is the Socialists' main rival, projected to win between 25 and 33 percent of the ballot. Set up in 1989 by a handful of radical, anti-communist students, FIDESZ-MPP seemed a vastly popular Liberal Party before the country's first democratic elections in 1990, but it received only five percent of the seats in Parliament. But they gave since changed their jeans for suits and ties, and their dissident liberalism for sober rightist politics learnt at Western democratic institutions.
The change of image involved attaching Civic Party (MPP) to their name. They too pledge to keep Hungary on the track of Western integration, substantial tax cuts and say they will double economic growth. They also campaign notably on fighting corruption and improving public security. - The Liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), the current junior partner in the ruling coalition, is slated to win 7-12 percent only according to polls.
In opposition after the 1990 elections, it joined the current government in 1994. At present, it struggles for a marked identity of its own along the lines of the government policy it pursued so far, pledging better public security, and more support for culture and education. - The opposition Independent Smallholder's Party (FKGP), projected to win 12-18 percent, is right-wing with extreme nationalistic and populist overtones.
It won 12 percent in 1990 and became part of the center-right governing coalition. In 1994 ballots its support slipped and it was cast into opposition. Its leader Jozsef Torgyan is known for his fiery rhetorical style. (AFP)
- Premier Gyula Horn's Socialist Party (MSZP) is the leader of the current center-right governing coalition. Latest opinion polls give the MSZP 31-36 percent of the vote. Born from the reformed communists of the one-time pro-Soviet Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP), the party has in four years comprehensively overhauled the economy and attracted to Hungary 40 percent of the foreign capital invested in the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. The Socialists are widely seen as the key force behind Hungary's push to be in the first wave of ex-communist countries to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
They are committed to giving parliamentary representation to the ethnic minorities who make 10 percent of Hungary's population. On the economy, they project slow but steady growth. Last year this stood at 4.4 percent. - Viktor Orban's right-wing opposition Federation of Young Democrats (FIDESZ-MPP) is the Socialists' main rival, projected to win between 25 and 33 percent of the ballot. Set up in 1989 by a handful of radical, anti-communist students, FIDESZ-MPP seemed a vastly popular Liberal Party before the country's first democratic elections in 1990, but it received only five percent of the seats in Parliament. But they gave since changed their jeans for suits and ties, and their dissident liberalism for sober rightist politics learnt at Western democratic institutions.
The change of image involved attaching Civic Party (MPP) to their name. They too pledge to keep Hungary on the track of Western integration, substantial tax cuts and say they will double economic growth. They also campaign notably on fighting corruption and improving public security. - The Liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), the current junior partner in the ruling coalition, is slated to win 7-12 percent only according to polls.
In opposition after the 1990 elections, it joined the current government in 1994. At present, it struggles for a marked identity of its own along the lines of the government policy it pursued so far, pledging better public security, and more support for culture and education. - The opposition Independent Smallholder's Party (FKGP), projected to win 12-18 percent, is right-wing with extreme nationalistic and populist overtones.
It won 12 percent in 1990 and became part of the center-right governing coalition. In 1994 ballots its support slipped and it was cast into opposition. Its leader Jozsef Torgyan is known for his fiery rhetorical style. (AFP)