Hungary MPs re-elect Orban ally as president
BUDAPEST: Hungarian lawmakers on Monday reelected President Janos Ader for a new five-year term, marking a comfortable victory for the rightwing government ally over his leftist rival.
Ader beat opposition candidate Laszlo Majtenyi in a second-round runoff by 131 votes to 39 in the 199seat parliament.
The vote for the largely ceremonial presidential role was a mere formality given that the ruling Fidesz party of premier Viktor Orban holds close to a twothirds majority.
Despite his defeat however, respected former ombudsman Majtenyi, 66, nonetheless managed a rare feat in this election – uniting Hungary’s normally warring leftist parties behind him.
In the last election five years ago, 57-year- old Ader ran uncontested. But ahead of next year’s general election, the fragmented left bloc – made up of the Socialist Party and several smaller outfits – has been trying to set aside its rifts and come up with a common strategy to take on Orban, in power since 2010.
His opponents have denounced the strongman for undermining key democratic institutions in sweeping reforms and stifling press freedom. — AFP volunteers sobbed as they pulled out three corpses, including a child found on top of its mother. Meselu Damte said the weeping man had lost his wife and four children. “Their bodies were found in the morning,” she said. “There are still houses that are to be found and many of my neighbours are inside.” Diggers used makeshift stretchers of plastic sheets to carry corpses to a single ambulance parked nearby.
Some volunteers expressed anger at the city administration. As well as the two excavators, only three ambulance workers were at the site. Scuffles broke out between them and residents as journalists approached.
“Stop pretending for the cameras!” one resident said. “They haven’t provided us with anything. Not even gloves. When it gets dark, we are using our mobile phones (for light).”
“We have warned the authorities for more than 10 years as the rubbish piled up. There has not been any response. It is criminal negligence,” said Taye Woldeamanuel, a 48-year- old whose sister narrowly survived the landslide. — Reuters