The period for collecting recommendations prior to the European Parliament elections ended at 4 p.m. on Friday. Regardless of the results, it is already certain that several routine members of the European Parliament will not continue their work in Brussels.

The campaign period before the municipal and European Parliament elections on June 9 began on April 20, and parties intending to run in the EP elections had to collect twenty thousand valid recommendations by 4 p.m. on Friday.

You can choose from a record number of parties on the ballot:

• Solution Movement

• LMP

• DK–MSZP–Dialogue – Greens

• During the Second Reformation

• Everyone's Hungary People's Party

• Momentum

• Fidesz–KDNP

• Jobbik - Conservatives

• Respect and Freedom Party

• Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party

• Our Country Movement

The People's Party led by Péter Jakab submitted more than 20,000 recommendations, but after the inspection, the amount did not reach the 20,000 valid recommendations, so in the end they cannot run in the European Parliament elections.

In order to run in the municipal election, candidates must collect the required number of valid recommendations by 4 p.m. on May 6. The two elections will be held on June 9.

Changes at Fidesz

Among the ruling party MEPs, Andrea Bocskor, Andor Deli, Balázs Hidvéghi, Lívia Járóka, László Trócsányi, probably neither will Ádám Kósa and Edina Tóth, based on their position on the list. Tamás Deutsch, the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP list, previously revealed that Balázs Hidvéghi will become a member of parliament. Balázs Győrffy, president of the National Chamber of Agriculture, and Pál Szekeres, Olympic bronze medalist fencer and three-time Paralympic champion, are among others on the list as new candidates.

The new candidates of the Vojvodina and Subcarpathian Hungarian national community, Annamária Vicsek and Viktória Ferenc, also have a good chance of getting in. MEPs Andrea Bocskor and Andor Deli continue their work in the interests of the Hungarian national communities across the border.

Lívia Járóka, who has been an EP representative since 2004 with an interruption of a few years, will continue her professional career in university-academic life in the future. László Trócsányi has already announced that he will not run again in the 2024 European Parliament elections, because after the end of his mandate he wants to work for the success of Hungarian higher education as rector of the Károli Gáspár Reformatory University.

Edina Tóth will become an environmental protection specialist with her experience as a consultant and representative in the European Parliament. Ádám Kósa is a current member of the European Parliament and, as president of the International Sports Committee of the Deaf, he will work as a Hungarian sports leader in one of the most important international sports diplomatic positions in the future.

A changing opposition field

István Ujhelyi has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014, but after his break with the MSZP, his name is not on the list of any party. Attila Ara-Kovács, the politician of the Democratic Coalition, will not continue his work in Brussels either, but Ágnes Vadai, who is currently a representative of the DK parliament, can optimistically wait for the election in third place on the list. MSZP deputy mayor Kata Tüttő, who is in fifth place on the list, would also be a first-cycle representative in the European Parliament.

Based on the poll data, it is unlikely that Márton Gyöngyösi, Márton Gyöngyösi, EP representative and president of Jobbik – Conservatives, will be able to stay in Brussels. The Jobbik list is headed by the economist Péter Róna, who would also have his first EP mandate.

At the head of the list of the Tisza Party is Péter Magyar, who previously indicated that he would not become a member of the European Parliament even if he won a mandate. The second place on the list belongs to Dórá Dávid, who works as a legal advisor at Meta, the third is Reformed pastor Zoltán Tarr, and the fourth is candidate surgeon and health education content producer András Kulja. All the candidates of the Tisza Party would be considered newcomers as EP representatives.

The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party would also delegate new faces to the European Parliament, their list is headed by urbanist Le Marietta, and the second is expedagogue Katalin Törley. László Toroczkai and Dóra Dúró are at the top of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom's list, but they would not transfer their headquarters to Brussels even if they won a mandate. The first EP representative of Mi Hazánk can be historian Zsuzsanna Borvendég. Momentum would not change its Brussels team, at the top of the list are their two current EP representatives, Anna Donáth and Katalin Cseh.

Péter Ungár would not go to the European Parliament either, even though he leads his party's list. The mandate would belong to Erzsébéte Schmuck, the other co-president of the LMP. Several parties with a lower chance of entry based on public opinion polls would also send new representatives to the European Parliament, such as the Solution Movement, the Second Reform Kor and the People's Party for Everyone's Hungary.

Index

Featured image: MTI/EPA/Patrick Seeger