If it hasn’t happened until now, the big unification won’t happen until July 2, believes political analyst and commentator Marián Leško.
Speaker of the Parliament Boris Kollár announced elections, the deadline for the parties to merge into one and change their name has passed. We didn’t see a big merger, but the Blues got together with Most-Híd, the Hungarian Forum with Mr. Mack, and the Democrats with Jablk. Is this what voters expected from democratic politicians?
I do not think so. If they expected anything, it was that a party would be formed that – as sociologist Slosiarik says – would have a chance of winning up to ten percent. A strong centre-right party plus part of the Hungarian grouping. This did not happen. The three twins who go to the polls together have a chance to get money for exceeding three percent. But I don’t think they have a chance to get into parliament. So they prepare the democratic camp by an estimated four to ten percent.
Does any of these three combined entities have a chance to prevail?
I do not believe it. There is not much time left until the elections. I don’t see that there is any big push on the goal, that they come up with any initiatives, that they offer any distinctive personalities. I think the most they can hope for is to raise money for the election and go over three percent. In my opinion, five percent is too high a goal for anyone.
Eduard Heger’s Democrats had several press conferences under the title Democrats are never enough, the last time he joined them on Wednesday added Dorota Nvotová. On Friday, Jozef Mihál, who was once in SaS and worked with Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová. Can it help the Democrats?
If a party is able to get a personality who is well-regarded in society for the elections, it is a good move if the party has solid foundations, a solid voter base and is established. Then it’s the icing on the cake. But if the cake isn’t there, the cherry can’t fulfill the function it should. And the cherries: with all due respect, the first cherry is a really good musician and civic activist. He is a personality, but not a political personality. And the second cherry, Mr. Mihál, has seemed to me a bit like a political tourist in recent years. When we remember how many subjects he has already replaced, how many he was in, I don’t think he will turn the situation around.
Nvotová had a good speech, where she pointed out that the Democrats are boring, to which she said, thank God, we need that. Can the public understand it?
If we were a normal country with normal political parties, with a normal spectrum and with a normal competition, boredom would be the last thing that would bother me. I think if politicians are boring and doing their job, that’s great. We do not need entertainers and eccentrics in politics. We need people who know what the administration of the country is about. I agree with Dorota on this. The problem is that all the people who are key in the Democrats – Mr. Heger, Mr. Naď, Mr. Budaj – missed their chance to appear as autonomous and strong political personalities.
They had that chance for two and a half years and wasted it criminally. They left Igor Matovič at a time when, as politicians are wont to say jokingly, it didn’t multiply anything, it didn’t divide anything, and it simply had no effect on reality. Mr. Heger said that we are in a crisis of chaos. The disappointment with the exercise of power is so great that even if the voters take into account that they say mostly reasonable things and take reasonable positions since they are not in government, it will not overcome the impression that people have of the exercise of their power.