Jobbik Elects Gábor Vona As Prime Minister Candidate

  • 12 Jun 2017 8:57 AM
Jobbik Elects Gábor Vona As Prime Minister Candidate
The congress of radical nationalist Jobbik elected party leader Gábor Vona as prime minister candidate. Vona was backed by 97% of the delegates, spokesman Ádám Mirkóczki said. Addressing the party’s 16th national congress in Budapest, Vona announced a programme for a safer, fairer and free Hungary. Vona pressed for an increase in wages in Hungary and cited his party’s wage union initiative, saying that “Jobbik plans to push this through even from opposition because the principle of equal wage for equal work is missing from the European Union’s basic principles.”

He said ending corruption is a necessary “0 step” and more money must be spent on health care and education. “While Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has a craze for football, my craze would be health services and hospitals,” he said.

Vona said he was planning a fair and sustainable pension system and differentiated pension increases would be necessary to make sure that small and medium pensions do not lose their purchasing power. The Jobbik leader described migration an “alarming threat” but added that emigration is “tragic reality”.

The reason Hungarians go to live abroad today is not because they are after adventures, he insisted. If Jobbik enters government, “radical help” will be offered to career starters and for home creation because there is no future without young people in Hungary, he added.

Vona said that instead of joining forces with failed parties that have lost their credit and are responsible for the current situation, Jobbik must join forces with the people that want a change in government. Ruling Fidesz said in response that Vona had “sold” and corrupted Jobbik.

Referring to Lajos Simicska, a businessman with media and advertising interests and once a key figure in Fidesz until he fell out with Orbán, Fidesz said that the “Jobbik- Simicska corruption” has negated not only Jobbik’s former nationalist policies but also raises the suspicion of crime and illegal party financing.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Szigetváry Zsolt

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