LMP – Hungary's Green Party LMP – Magyarország Zöld Pártja | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | LMP |
| Co-Presidents | Péter Ungár Katalin Szabó-Kellner |
| Parliamentary leader | Péter Ungár |
| Founded | 26 February 2009 |
| Headquarters | 1136 Budapest, Hegedűs Gyula u. 36. |
| Youth wing | The Future Can Be Different[1] |
| Ideology | Green liberalism[4] Syncretic politics[5] |
| Political position | Centre tocentre-left |
| European affiliation | European Green Party (suspended since March 2024)[6] |
| International affiliation | Global Greens |
| Colours | Green |
| National Assembly | 3 / 199 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 21 |
| County Assemblies | 0 / 381 |
| General Assembly of Budapest | 1 / 33 |
| Website | |
| lehetmas.hu | |
LMP – Hungary's Green Party (Hungarian:LMP – Magyarország Zöld Pártja[ˈɛlɛmpeːˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡˈzøldˈpaːrcɒ]) previously known asPolitics Can Be Different (Hungarian:Lehet Más a Politika[ˈlɛhɛtˈmaːʃˈɒːˈpolitikɒ],LMP) until 2020, is agreen-liberal[7][8][9]political party in Hungary. Founded in 2009, it was one of four parties to win seats in theNational Assembly in the2010 parliamentary election. It is a member of theGlobal Greens, and suspended member of theEuropean Green Party.
The party was preceded by a non-governmental organization social initiative founded in 2008, with the purpose of reformingHungarian politics.[10] LMP shares common ideologies with mostgreen parties. Key issues are environmental protection,sustainable development and the fight against corruption in the current political elite. LMP highlights what they see as the pointlessness of the current partisan division between theleft and right-wing forces, and their principle isdeliberative democracy, which they believe decreases the distance between the people and the political elite.
The public faces of the organization wereAndrás Schiffer, a former member of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) andVédegylet, andBernadett Szél, an economist and NGO worker at the party's formation. The leading figures also includedBenedek Jávor, university professor in environmental law and a founder of Védegylet,Gábor Scheiring, an economist, andTímea Szabó, a humanitarian worker, who was to head the list presented for the2009 European Parliament elections. In 2009, LMP received the official endorsement of the European Green Party.[11]
At the2009 European Parliament elections the party garnered 75,522 votes, (or 2.61% of the total votes), which was less than the 5% needed to gain a seat for the 2009–2014 cycle, though beating the 2.16% received byAlliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), one of the parties already in the national parliament.[12]
In the2010 parliamentary elections, the party achieved 7.48% in the first electoral round, thereby clearing the 5 percent electoral threshold, gaining 16 seats in the parliament, though it did not obtain any direct-representational seats.[13] In the local elections of 3 October 2010, LMP gained 54 seats in local city councils, with at least one representative in most of the district councils of the capital, three seats in the General Assembly of Budapest, as well as in a few other cities around the country.Gábor Ivády was the only party member to be elected mayor of a town; however he left LMP on 21 October 2010.[14]
Since its establishment and 2010 national election, LMP was kept under pressure by theHungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) to achieve some kind of electoral compromise and cooperation againstViktor Orbán's controversial government. For instance, during the by-election in the 2nd District of Budapest in 2011, MSZP urged the LMP's candidateGergely Karácsony to withdraw inKatalin Lévai's favor, but the Green party did not do this.[15] The leadership of the LMP positioned the party to thecentre, and, as a newcomer, rejected both Fidesz and MSZP's politics. András Schiffer also criticized the previous Socialist cabinets, blamingFerenc Gyurcsány's disastrous governance for having Fidesz won a two-thirds majority in 2010.[16] However prominent politicians in LMP were divided on the issue of cooperation. In July 2011, Karácsony proposed an election coalition betweenJobbik, LMP and MSZP, to change certain laws enacted by Fidesz. He citedÉva Tétényi's case, as a precedent of how such a proposal could work.[17] Politics Can Be Different became a full member of theEuropean Green Party (EGP) in November 2011.[18]
During the party's congress in November 2012, LMP decided not to joinTogether 2014, the planned electoral alliance of opposition parties and movements led byGordon Bajnai. As a result,Benedek Jávor, a proponent of the agreement, resigned from his position of parliamentary group leader.[19] Jávor and his supporters (includingTímea Szabó andGergely Karácsony) founded a platform within the party, called "Dialogue for Hungary" on 26 November 2012. The platform argued in favour of conclusion of an electoral agreement with Bajnai's movement to replace "Orbán's regime".[20] Later that daySchiffer, who did not support the cooperation with Bajnai, was elected leader of the LMP parliamentary group for second time.[21]
In January 2013, the LMP's congress rejected again the electoral cooperation with other opposition parties, including Together 2014.[22] As a result, members of the party's "Dialogue for Hungary" platform left LMP to form a new political organization. Benedek Jávor announced the eight leaving MPs will not resign from their parliamentary seats. Seven parliamentarians remained in the party, Jávor said negotiations are required for the continued operation of the parliamentary group, according to the house rules, which requires 12 seats. Schiffer did not call the secession as a party split, because, he argued, less than 10% of the LMP's membership decided to leave the party and joined Jávor's new initiative.[23] The leaving MPs establishedDialogue for Hungary as an officially registered party in March 2013.[24] After the failed negotiations, the eight MPs also left the parliamentary group which then broken up according to the house rules of the National Assembly.[25]
The4K! – Fourth Republic! party offered electoral alliance to the LMP. Party leader András Istvánffy called the developments that took place in opposition as "a cleansing process, which will separate those who seek to restore pre-2010 conditions and those who want real regime change."[26] However LMP refused the 4K! party's cooperation offer in September 2013.[27]
Schiffer andBernadett Szél were elected co-presidents of the LMP during the party's congress on 24 March 2013.[28] The seven MPs of the party were able to re-establish the LMP's caucus on 1 September 2013, after the decision of the Committee on Immunity, Incompatibility and Mandate. The old-new group became the first caucus, where the majority were women, for the first time in Hungary.[29]
Politics Can Be Different received five seats, as it barely jumped over the 5% threshold in the2014 parliamentary election.[30] The party reached the same result in the2014 European Parliament election, when it received 5.04% of the votes and sent one representative to theEuropean Parliament.MEPTamás Meszerics joinedThe Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA).[31] In August 2014, LMP and 4K! agreed to a cooperation in some electoral districts in Budapest during the2014 local elections.[32] The candidate for Budapest mayor, Antal Csárdi, took just fourth place afterIstván Tarlós,Lajos Bokros andGábor Staudt. The party collected fewer votes with 50,000 than results of four years ago in the whole country. Virtually LMP remained a metropolitan organization, with only an insignificant representation in the countryside.[33] In a different point of view, LMP largely regained the positions, which had been lost during the party split in early 2013, for instance, then all three representatives in the General Assembly of Budapest joined Dialogue for Hungary.[34]
On 18 July 2015, Schiffer and Szél were re-elected co-presidents of the party. Ákos Hadházy, a formerFidesz member, who revealed the government's tobacco shop corruption scandal, was also elected to the LMP's leadership.[35] The party's most well-known politician, Schiffer announced his retirement from politics on 31 May 2016.[36] After the resignation ofErzsébet Schmuck, Szél was elected leader of the LMP parliamentary group on 16 February 2017.[37]
In September 2017, Bernadett Szél was nominated the party's candidate to the position of prime minister for theupcoming parliamentary election.[38] In the same month, formersocialist MPMárta Demeter joined the LMP's parliamentary group, but she is not member of the party.[39] During that time, Bernadett Szél was nominated the party's candidate to the position of prime minister for theupcoming parliamentary election.[40] In December 2017, Bernadett Szél andGyörgy Gémesi agreed, that the Politics Can Be Different and theNew Start ran together in the 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election.[41]
In these parliamentary election, LMP won 7.06 per cent of the votes and returned 8 members in the parliament (including one single-member constituency in Budapest). After these elections, internal conflicts led to resignation of Bernadett Szél as party's co-chair. Party's support also declined. For example, the party in2019 European Parliament election achieved almost identical results as in 2009.
In 2020, the changed its name to theLMP – Hungary's Green Party.
During the2022 parliamentary election, the LMP was a member of theUnited for Hungary, a broad coalition of parties seeking to oust the Orbán government, winning 7.0% of the vote and 8 seats.
Following the 2022 election,Péter Ungár became a co-chair of the party, whose mother is a key figure inFidesz.[42]
Under Ungár, the party shifted away from the other opposition parties, and in the2024 Budapest mayoral election, LMP endorsed the Fidesz-linked candidate,Dávid Vitézy. This move saw them officially suspended from theEuropean Green Party in March 2024.[43] Following the local elections and European parliament elections in 2024, several figures in the party left.[44] In February 2025, the party dropped to 3 MPs, meaning they did not meet the 5 MP threshold to form a parliamentary group.[45][46]
The party's political position has been widely described ascentrist[47] andcentre-left.[48] Other sources describe LMP and their voters as "hard to evaluate",[49]populist,[50] and inclusive ofcentre-right elements.[51] The party has been described as combining someliberal andconservative positions and support, with the party taking a lessprogressive position following the split ofDialogue for Hungary.[52]
| Term | Male co-chair | Female co-chair |
|---|---|---|
| 2013–2016 | András Schiffer | Bernadett Szél |
| 2016–2018 | Ákos Hadházy | |
| 2018–2019 | László Lóránt Keresztes | Márta Demeter |
| 2019–2020 | János Kendernay | Erzsébet Schmuck |
| 2020–2022 | Máté Kanász-Nagy | |
| 2022–2024 | Péter Ungár | |
| 2024– | Katalin Szabó-Kellner |
| Election | Leader | SMCs | MMCs | Seats | +/– | Status | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
| 2010 | András Schiffer Bernadett Szél | 259,220 | 5.07% (#4) | 383,876 | 7.48% (#4) | 16 / 386 | New | Opposition |
| Election | Leader | Constituency | Party list | Seats | +/– | Status | ||
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
| 2014 | András Schiffer Bernadett Szél | 244,191 | 4.97% (#4) | 269,414 | 5.34% (#4) | 5 / 199 |  11 | Opposition |
| 2018 | Ákos Hadházy Bernadett Szél | 312,731 | 5.68% (#5) | 404,429 | 7.06% (#4) | 8 / 199 |  3 | Opposition |
| 2022[a] | Máté Kanász-Nagy Erzsébet Schmuck | 1,983,708 | 36.90% (#2) | 1,947,331 | 34.44% (#2) | 5 / 199 | 3 | Opposition |
| Election | List leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/− | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009[a] | Tímea Szabó | 75,522 | 2.61 (#5) | 0 / 22 | New | − |
| 2014 | Tamás Meszerics | 116,904 | 5.04 (#6) | 1 / 21 | 1 | Greens/EFA |
| 2019 | Gábor Vágó | 75,498 | 2.18 (#8) | 0 / 21 | 1 | − |
| 2024 | Péter Ungár | 39,646 | 0.87 (#8) | 0 / 21 |  0 |
Before 2020 the parties may have cherished the idea of establishing independent party lists, in the form of an „old-school leftist" block (Hungarian Socialist Party and Democratic Coalition) and a block of „new wave" parties (centre-right Jobbik, centrist LMP, liberal Momentum and new leftist Párbeszéd „Dialogue" party), which could have formed a coalition government in case they won.
The oldest and largest of them is Politics Can Be Different (LMP), which has a centrist and green profile.
| National Assembly (199) |
|
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| Not represented* |
* Limit for parties to join the National Assembly in Hungary is 5 % of popular votes |
| European Parliament (21) | |
| International | |
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| National | |
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