RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 8, 7 May 1998
HORN ATTACKS RIGHTIST PARTIES AS CAMPAIGN HEATS UP.
Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Horn told voters that they
have a choice in the upcoming elections between a "European
left" and an "outdated, hateful, shifting alliance of the
right," Reuters reported on 6 May. Horn, speaking to a crowd
of about 1,000 trade union supporters, said he was "afraid
for this country" if right-wing parties such as the
Independent Smallholders Party and the nationalist Hungarian
Justice and Life Party (MIEP) were to join a governing
coalition. The Federation of Young Democrats, which is
running second behind Horn's Socialists in opinion polls,
distanced itself from the MIEP by issuing a statement saying
it had nothing to do with the extremist party or its
ideology. Former Polish President Lech Walesa was in Hungary
over the weekend campaigning with Viktor Orban and the Young
Democrats. Some 1,602 candidates and 26 parties will contest
the election, which will be decided in two rounds, the first
one on 10 May and the second round two weeks later. At stake
are the 386 seats in the unicameral parliament. PB
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