Former PM Bajnai’s political movement officially forms political party

Együtt (Together) 2014 has formed a political party, Gordon Bajnai, the former prime minister who heads it, announced on Friday. Bajnai, who co-founded the electoral movement on October 23 last year, said a new force was needed to bring about a new era which the existing “old” parties are incapable of achieving. Bajnai said Együtt 2014 will enter into an alliance with the Dialogue for Hungary party (PM), set up by a group of lawmakers which broke away from opposition green party LMP last month. The two parties will run on a joint ticket and field joint candidates for prime minister and deputies in the country’s next parliamentary elections next spring. The new party is led by three co-chairs including Viktor Szigetvári, the former campaign head of the Socialist Party and now deputy president of Bajnai’s Patriotism and Progress Association, Péter Kónya, the head of the Hungarian Solidarity Movement and Péter Juhász, a former leader of the anti-government Milla Association. The party’s board will include Benedek Jávor and Tímea Szabó, the former lawmakers of LMP, and now co-chairs of the PM party. Bajnai, as a sixth board member, will be in charge of overseeing preparations for the general election and future governance. Bajnai said Friday’s event marked the first real step taken in aligning the opposition forces. This alliance marks the change of era and is a guarantee that the country will change, said Bajnai. The opposition Socialists issued a statement congratulating Together 2014 on forming a new party. Party leader Attila Mesterházy said Hungary is preparing for a “historic election” taking place in 2014 for which parties and movements of the democratic opposition must create a majority in support to the “programme of change.”