Interview given by Zsolt Nemeth, vice-chairman of Fidesz, to the Washington Times

Dátum: 2002-11-15 10:40:00, eredeti URL: http://archiv.fidesz.hu/index.php?Cikk=5821
KCMDB-be feltöltve: 2024-05-04 17:54:26.219910, Feltöltő: fidesz_hu_scraper_v2

One of the leaders of Hungary's conservative opposition party is hoping for a miracle — but not for the next election.

Zsolt Nemeth of the Hungarian Civic Party yesterday predicted his party will take back the government from the ruling ex-communist Socialist Party in 2006. Then he will hope for the miracle.

"The miracle would be that a party is re-elected in Hungary," he told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "In Central Europe, this is the rule: The political pendulum swings from left to right and back." Slovakia is the only Central European nation that has re-elected a government since the fall of communism, he said.

The Hungarian Socialists won 178 seats in the 386-seat parliament in the April elections. They rule in a coalition with the Alliance of Free Democrats, which holds 20 seats. The Hungarian Civic Party won 164 seats, and the Hungarian Democratic Forum holds 24.

Because of proportional representation, the opposition claimed nearly half of the committee chairmanships, and Mr. Nemeth heads the foreign relations panel. He said the nearly equal division between left and right is a sign of maturity for Hungarian politics. "This is a stable, bipolar political system," he said.

Mr. Nemeth is in Washington this week on behalf of his party chief, former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who received the Reagan-Truman award from the Victims of Communism organization.

The Washington Times, 14 November 2002