Máté Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, said opposition leader Péter Magyar and his Tisza Party "would bring back the world of SZDSZ", Hungary's leftist-liberal party of the 1990s.
"Magyar was not born and raised a right-winger; he comes from an SZDSZ family," Kocsis said in the online programme Fight Hour on Wednesday.
Kocsis insisted that Tisza would restore a world of failed politicians "that in fact drove the country bankrupt by 2010."
Meanwhile, he said public opinion polls reflected that the supporter base of Fidesz was intact, while Tisza "in fact did in the leftist parties, which had no structure ... the Democratic Coalition is still standing to some extent, but these little online parties ... Tisza has swept off."
Kocsis said Magyar was bent on "pushing for a debate" with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but added that "Orbán should not have a debate with Magyar but with Magyar's masters such as Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber".
Concerning an ongoing probe into the Hungarian National Bank's finances under former governor György Matolcsy, Kocsis said the leftists' opposition had "constructed a campaign ... in which the figures are distorted". As opposed to the opposition's claims, a relevant report by the State Audit Office "never mentions 500 or 650 billion forints ... it has not been said, it was not written down," he said.