According to MSZP campaign chief Zsolt Molnár, a two-thirds victory by the left is not unimaginable. That’s right. A two-thirds victory by the left. So let’s put aside Molnár and take a look at what the campaign manager of another “Unity” alliance member, E-PM, is expecting. At a forum organised by Republikon this week, Gergely Karácsony said he believes that the election is going to be extremely close and the left can only emerge victorious if they conduct a negative campaign. This latter statement is what makes it almost certain that Fidesz will come away as a winner. It is incredibly difficult to win an election with a negative campaign in Hungary. Winning slogans in the past included: “A trustworthy solution”, “Yes, you have a different choice”, “The time is now” or simply “Yes”. But it seems that all the Socialists have left is a negative campaign. Not a surprise really: they managed to chase away everyone who tried to make sense – one example is Speaker Katalin Szili, whom we interviewed for this issue. Meanwhile Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and co. are making perfect sense for Average Joe: they are reducing overhead costs, expanding the Paks power plant and renationalising a bunch of energy companies so that the profit stays in Hungary. Are these controversial power plays that should be debated? Yes and yes. But a negative campaign will never lead to debate, it will only mobilise the troops. In addition to the drawback mentioned above, a significant downside of this for the left is that it will do so on both sides.
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