"It was not the opposition that defeated us, and nor was it the Free Democrats. We defeated ourselves, and this is the real problem," Gyurcsány told delegates at the closed meeting on Saturday, June 12. The Socialists and their Free Democrat junior coalition parties did not have to like each other: theirs was a marriage of convenience needed to implement the government's programme. He acknowledged differences of opinion within the party, saying that he liked cooperating with chancellery minister Péter Kiss and parliamentary party leader Ildikó Lendvai, "who, I believe, would have done anything to stop me from becoming prime minister." It had been impossible to make it clear to the party faithful that  failed presidential candidate Katalin Szili could not be elected. "When I said that we didn't have a majority, the reaction was always 'Why don't you like Kati?"

Party officials had accused him of lacking boldness when he had asked them how Szili could be elected without Free Democrat support. The party had to put aside its internal "cultural conflict." As newly-chosen leader of the electoral committee, he promised to show a greater sense of responsibility for the party, though he would continue to argue in favour of what he saw as the right course of action with leaders of the party's county-level organisations.