In April of this year, The Republic of Hungary will hold its Parliamentary Elections. The center left party (MSZP) is likely to lose its governing position, while the center right party (FIDESZ) could gain a two-thirds supermajority. Over the past couple of years FIDESZ has been slowly gaining support. Most recent polls have placed FIDESZ at around 60%. Concurrently, a radical right and semi-racist party called “Jobbik” started exhibiting terrifying results in these polls. It is entirely within the roam of possibility that Jobbik will obtain over ten percent of the votes this year. Jobbik is promising to fight “gypsy crime”, openly opposes many of the ideals and basic structures of the European Union, and some of the Jobbik leader's policies could exasperate tensions between Hungary and neighboring countries. The party commonly uses racial slurs against the Roma and Jews. It is not uncommon to encounter "Árpád sávos" flags at their rallies, the same flag that was used by the Hungarian fascists during the 1940's. tovább »

Already this campaign season there have been serious reports of abuses of the support-slip system. Politics can Be Different (LMP) reccomends a reform of the ballot-qualification methodology which is currently in place. Instead of the present corrupt and anti-democratic system which is used today to obtaina a spot on the ballot, the proposal calls for a moral investment. Gergely Karácsony, the campaign manager of LMP, held a press-meeting last Saturday to outline the proposal. tovább »

Latest Forsense poll conducted polled LMP at having 5% of the decided voters. The poll found that the current preferences of decided voters are: tovább »

Politics Can be Different is filing a report against a set of unknown individuals for the abuses of the support-slip system in eight separate municipalities. This time, public officials are suspected of having committed the breach. tovább »

Translated from Népszava by LMP

András Schiffer began his political career as a member of the Hungarian Youth Socialist party in the 90’s and soon after he became a full time lawyer. Recently he has represented clients such as Viktor Orbán, the leader of the conservative party, and Tibor Bakács, a famous journalist. His great grandfather was president of Hungary. Today he is in the number one position on the Politics can Be Different (LMP) National Ballot list. tovább »

A new Századvég poll conducted found that if the elections were held today, Politics can Be Different (LMP) would receive 3% of the votes. LMP's biggest advantages is also its biggest disadvantage. Politics can Be Different (LMP) is not very prominent in many areas of the country. LMP has yet to tap into hundreds of thousands of potential voters. For LMP, the outcome of the Parliamentary elections in April could very well depend on whether or not they succeed in reaching out to this section of the population. tovább »

LMP (Politics Can be Different) has a candidate running in each of the 176 Hungarian Parliamentary districts. András Schiffer and Benedek Jávor , LMP candidates in the first and second position on the National Ballot, and Gergly Karácsony, LMP campaign manager, held a press conference last Wednesday to introduce the official list of candidates. tovább »

According to LMP, decreasing the import tax on natural gas to 5% is at best a temporary solution. In the long run, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of domestic energy sources. The type of socially sensitive mentality required to implement such a change can be brought about via the institution of domestic aid regardless of the type of heating system used. The country’s disproportionally large energy consumption is unacceptable, especially taking into consideration the state’s increasing budget for environmental conservation, which comes from selling of carbon credits. As a result of this, Politics Can be Different (LMP) continues to support the advice of the ombudsman, who calls for the creation of a separate budget for environmental conservation. tovább »

Politics Can be Different (LMP) held a public protest to raise awareness of the countless homeless men, women, and children who are freezing to death during this bitter cold winter season, and about the pressing issues associated with extreme poverty in Hungary. Following the protest, Bálint Misetics held a press conference to articulate the party's proposals and suggestions for combating poverty and homelessness. tovább »

At the party's National congressional meeting this Sunday LMP voted on the list of candidates. Although the list has not been finalized, it's clear that there will be candidates for all 176 parliamentary districts. Almost a third of the candidates are women. tovább »