The former leader of the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK), Béla Bugar, together with two other MPs in the Slovak Parliament, László Nagy and Gábor Gál, are to leave the party’s parliamentary caucus.
They announced their decision at a news conference on Wednesday, April 22, but added that they would not quit the party for now.
“Our decision did not come easily and we were not eager to do this,” Bugár stated. He said their move was a warning to the party leadership. According to Bugár, it is not directed against the SMK parliamentary caucus, or against its chairman Gyula Bardos.
The final straw which led them to leave was a statement on Sunday by SMK leader Pál Csáky about SMK members who had chosen to quit the party following a district congress in Levice last weekend, the SITA newswire wrote. According to Bugár, Csáky lied when he accused those people of quitting because of their own economic interests and because they had failed to get onto the list of candidates for local elections.
“These people supported us when our government was adopting restrictive measures,” said Bugár. He said that it was not his credo that had changed, but the SMK. He said he thinks that most of the party’s representatives need self-reflection, and added the step should be a warning to the SMK Republican Council, due to meet on May 16, to take measures to change the party’s style of politics. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
22. Apr 2009 at 14:00
