László Toroczkai, recently defeated in a race to lead Hungary’s Jobbik, has decided to set up a platform within the radical nationalist party to “return the party to the ideology laid out in its founding deed”.
Toroczkai told a press conference that the idea of the new platform, to be called Mi magunk (Ourselves), was raised last Friday at a meeting of seven mayors delegated by Jobbik and “several mid-ranking” party officials.
Toroczkai noted that Jobbik’s current rules neither prohibit platforms within the party nor contain stipulations concerning their operations. He added that their initiative now awaits approval by Jobbik’s presidium.
He said that if the leadership rejected the new platform, a “party split” could ensue.
The platform is to hold its first meeting in Ásotthalom on June 23, which is expected to be attended by “several hundreds, several thousands,” Toroczkai said. Apart from party members, they welcome all who are sympathetic with the party’s principles as expressed in the founding deed but have already left Jobbik or could not identify with the strategy of the past two years, he said.
Talks on the platform with the board should be closed by that date. “So it can be considered a deadline,” he said.
In response, Jobbik MP Péter Jakab told a press conference that his party’s rules did not allow for platforms.
Jobbik is governed by its 2003 founding deed under which the party “represents the whole of the nation … Setting up a party within the party would work against Jobbik,” he said, adding that its leadership would refuse to help out “those striving for a split”.
Toroczkai, the hardline Mayor of Ásotthalom, was defeated by Tamás Sneider in Jobbik’s leadership election on May 12.
Featured image: MTI