The opposition Socialist Party elected Ágnes Kunhalmi and Imre Komjáthi co-leaders at its congress in Budapest on Saturday. Kunhalmi and Komjáthi were the only two candidates for the posts. Kunhalmi, who was re-elected after serving as co-leader alongside Bertalan Tóth since 2020, received 90% of the vote and Komjáthi 89%. Of the 237 valid votes cast, Kunhalmi received 214 and Komjáthi 211.
In his speech streamed on the party’s Facebook page, Komjáthi urged the opposition parties to cooperate in the 2024 local elections the same way they had done in 2019 and to field candidates on a joint list in the European Parliament elections. He said he wanted the Socialist Party to be the voice of the working people who had yet to be heard by those in power. He said that in addition to the global crisis, Hungary was also plagued by a “private crisis called the Fidesz government”. He said the party needed to stand up for those who “had no hope” and also had to represent those who did not vote in the spring but now felt “deceived, disappointed and lost”.
Komjáthi said the Socialists were “the only purely left-wing party” and their platform was based on saving freedom, legal certainty and democracy, creating equal opportunities and social security and ending social injustice, as well as strengthening environmental protection and enforcing climate justice.
Kunhalmi said the party needed to break with crisis-management policies based on austerity and reforms forced onto society from above. Hungary today was plagued by crises to which ruling Fidesz has responded with austerity measures, she added.
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