LMP strives to form credible gov’t alternative, says parliamentary group leader
Hungary’s green party, Politics Can Be Different (LMP), strives to be in position to form an alternative to the current government in the next elections, the party’s parliamentary group leader said after a two-day meeting of the European Greens in Budapest on Friday.
Andras Schiffer said that he believed there was a real chance for the greens to be in government, not only in western Europe, but in this part of the continent, too.
LMP, which first entered parliament in the elections last spring, polls around 5 percent, the threshold for gaining a parliamentary mandate.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-chair of the European greens, said his party supported an electoral system based on proportional representation. He said his personal opinion was that the German system was the most balanced, whereas in many other counties segments of society failed to get represented due to the first-past-the-post system which favoured dominant parties.
Hungary is planning to change its electoral system in 2014 and to reduce the number of lawmakers to around 200 from 386 at present. The country operates a mixed system which combines party lists, proportional representation and first-past-the-post in individual constituencies. It appears that the current rubric will be changed in minor ways and Hungarians living beyond the borders will be allowed to cast ballots for party lists.
In connection with Hungary’s new media law, which the European greens discussed on Thursday, Schiffer said it is likely that some of the decisions brought about by the new media authority would end up in the Strasbourg courts. He said LMP is ready to take on representation of cases where basic rights appear to be violated.
Bernadett Szel, an LMP spokesperson, said green thinking was spreading all over Europe, and it is now clear that traditional ideologies can no longer respond to the needs of citizens.
Rebecca Harms, co-chair of the European parliamentary green group, told MTI, in connection with the Japan nuclear accident, she welcomed the fact that the Hungarian government had not set in stone its decision to expand Hungary’s sole nuclear plant at Paks. She said she trusted that Hungary had enough openness to allow a proper debate on whether to pursue the nuclear option or alternative energy sources. Even China, which has been pursuing an active nuclear policy, has decided to freeze plans in light of events in Japan, she said.
via Politics.Hu: LMP strives to form credible gov’t alternative, says parliamentary group leader.
In Boedapest 
No trackbacks yet.