The man who ended Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in office, Péter Magyar, has pushed for as early a transfer of power as possible during talks with Hungary’s president three days after his party’s landslide election victory.
Magyar met Tamás Sulyok at the presidential palace, telling reporters afterwards he wanted the first meeting of the new National Assembly to be held on 4 May – the day that official election results are expected.
Sulyok, writing on social media, said he had told Magyar he would convene parliament “at the earliest possible date after the final result is announced”.
He did not comment on Magyar’s demand that he step down, although the prime minister-elect said the president told him he would consider it.
Sulyok said he would “officially propose” Magyar for the position of prime minister at the first meeting of the new parliament, which will elect the new government. Magyar said that was likely to be 6 or 7 May, although he wanted that to take place earlier.
Magyar, 45, says the president “is unworthy of representing the unity of the Hungarian nation” and wants him to leave as soon as the new government is formed: “He is not fit to serve as a moral authority or a role model.”
He arrived for the talks at the presidential palace shortly before 10:00 (08:00 GMT), and later posted a video of himself standing with Tamás Sulyok on the balcony of the presidential palace, while Viktor Orbán was standing on balcony at the Karmelita monastery that houses his office next door.
Orbán and another party leader with MPs in parliament met the president afterwards, but the outgoing prime minister avoided reporters who were at the time speaking to Magyar outside the front of the palace, and slipped in through a side entrance.
Credit: bbc.com
