Rasmussen tells EPP to "get serious" about Hungarian local elections

3 October 2006

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen urged EPP President Wilfried Martens to “get serious” and accept the Parliamentary election result in the same way as the Socialists accepted the local election result.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said “Wilfried Martens cannot be serious when he calls on Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to resign because of local elections results. Hungary is a democracy – the Socialists may have lost in the local elections but they won the national elections. It is a fact of political life that Governments often lose local elections. We Socialists accept the local election results –  now the EPP and the Fidesz Party must accept the Parliamentary election results and get down to being a democratic opposition. Instead of calling for resignations Martens and FIDESZ should have been calling for calm. The time for demonstrations is over, now it’s time for serious Parliamentary work.”

For more information: Julian Scola, PES Press Officer, mobile +32 486 117 394