Steven N.
Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s candidate for prime minister (pictured), recently announced his intentions of forming a new, conservative Hungarian political party. Márki-Zay’s initial plans were to merge the New World People’s Party, headed by József Pálinkás, and New Beginnings, founded by György Gémesi.
But now, writes Telex, another party is also interested in taking part in this opposition movement: Civic Answer, a party started by former Jobbik politician János Bencsik.
We have been urging this cooperation ever since we were formed, as the values of [Márki-Zay’s] Everybody’s Hungary Movement, the New World People’s Party, and New Beginnings are all close to ours. We’ve had a good relationship with all three parties for a long time.
-Bencsik told the news portal.
According to Márki-Zay, the details of the cooperation may be clarified by January, and the leaders of the new formation will be elected by the party’s membership. However, the party will not be led by Márki-Zay himself, as he only wants to join it following next year’s elections.
On this point, the opposition leader stated:
As a candidate for prime minister, I definitely intend to remain independent until the elections, but I think it is important that the conservative, center-right, European People’s Party, which can be considered my spiritual home, is also represented in Parliament.
The mayor of Hódmezővásárhely added that he would not join the new political party for the time being, since he will be representing all six parties in the opposition coalition until next year’s elections.
Although there is no final agreement yet, a number of well-known names in Hungarian politics are expected to be interested in the new party. Among them, Péter Márki-Zay mentioned Géza Jeszenszky, former Foreign Minister and Ambassador to Washington, Péter Ákos Bod, former Governor of the Hungarian National Bank, Botond Szalma, former chair of the Budapest branch of KDNP, and Károly Herényi, former Member of Parliament from the defunct MDF party.
