The opposition Socialists and Párbeszéd are not seeking to dismantle Hungary’s southern border fence, the PM candidate of the two parties told a press conference on Wednesday, in reaction to a billboard campaign based on that allegation.
Gergely Karácsony insisted that ruling Fidesz deliberately sought to mislead voters through the billboards, a tableau of US billionaire George Soros, Jobbik leader Gábor Vona, Democratic Coalition’s Ferenc Gyurcsány, Bernadett Szél of LMP and Karácsony himself with wire cutters in hand in front of a damaged fence, and with the inscription “they would pull down the fence together”.
What the Socialist-Párbeszéd electoral alliance seeks to dismantle is not the border fence but the “Orbán regime based on lies”,
Karácsony said. He argued that the fence, along the Hungary-Serbia border, “ensures a sense of security for many voters” and added that those voters “are at least as important for the alliance as those having a different opinion”.
Answering a question why the Socialists and Párbeszéd had changed their earlier position condemning the fence, Karácsony suggested that it was now in place and said that “the question is not whether it should be built but if it should be removed”. “A lot of other things need to be removed but as far as we are concerned, the fence can stay,” he said.
In response, ruling Fidesz said in a statement that Karácsony was a “turncoat” denying his “wish to dismantle the fence” while being “the PM candidate of the very Socialist Party which has vowed to pull it down once on government”.
featured image: MTI