The Szolnok election held earlier in January was won by the Fidesz candidate. Tóbiás insisted that in every byelection held in the past year, the Socialists had either won or achieved a good result.

“The Socialist Party wants a change of government,” he told the paper. “It wants what the majority of the country wants.” Tóbiás insisted that he was not concerned with the statements of former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, the one-time Socialist leader who now heads a rival leftist party, the Democratic Coalition.

Gyurcsány, he said, does not influence his decision making. “We are building a self-contained left-wing party which upholds the national interests, and for the next 18 months to two years, we will not preoccupy ourselves with any other opposition party,” he said.

Tóbiás said he would again put himself forward as a candidate to lead the Socialists at the party’s June congress.

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MTI photo: Kovács Tamás