BUDAPEST — LiveJasmin founder György Gattyán and his recently founded political party did not have a strong showing in the legislative elections celebrated in Hungary earlier this month.
Gattyán’s party received around 60K votes out of 5.7M ballots in the April 3 legislative elections, placing near the bottom.
In comparison, ruling party Fidesz received around 3M votes, followed by the main opposition coalition with around 2M votes.
Among the outlier candidates, Gattyán was even beaten by the Hungarian Two Tailed Dog Party, a joke group that received over three times as many votes as the prominent adult livecamming businessman and novice politician.
As XBIZ reported, Gattyán, one of the wealthiest Hungarian entrepreneurs, announced his intention to enter the political arena late last year.
Last month, the party he founded, the Solution Movement — known in Hungary as Megoldás Mozgalom or the “MEMO” party — announced their platform under the slogan slogan, “Heart, Reason and Courage.”
The slogan, according to Gattyán associate and MEMO rep Péter Szatmári, evokes the social areas the LiveJasmin magnate aimed to target.
“The ‘heart’ represents healthcare, as the COVID pandemic showed just how bad the state of health of Hungarians is,” Hungary Today explained in March. “As for the motto of ‘reason,’ it is important to see that Hungary’s intellectual capital is exceptionally strong compared to neighboring countries; education needs much more attention. And the party has the strength and courage to make real change.”
Gattyán’s new party did not reach an agreement for this month’s election with the main alliance opposing the rule of current President Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party.
Gattyán also spent much of the campaign strenuously denying accusations that his “third party” bid was actually a maneuver welcomed or even engineered by Fidesz to siphon off votes from the main opposition alliance.