Hungary: Orban narrowly ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections

Hungarians are being called to the polls Sunday for parliamentary elections, following a fierce election campaign dominated by the war in Ukraine, with opinion polls giving incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orb μικρόn a narrow lead over 12 years.

Fidesz, his party, “appears in the polls to win,” but has a small lead, and Orban, 58, has never faced so much uncertainty in the past, says Bulksu Hunyadi, an analyst at the independent Political Capital Institute.

“All possibilities are on the table,” he said, adding that “the last mobilization” was important to convince the undecided, who are estimated to reach half a million in a country of 9.7 million people.

Orban will address supporters today in the town of Szekersfehervar, less than an hour from Budapest.

This gathering will be an opportunity for the Hungarian Prime Minister to reiterate that he protects “peace and security” in the country, in the face of an opposition that he has described as “dangerous”.

Orban is facing a united opposition for the first time since coming to power in a sweeping election victory in 2010. The united opposition candidate for prime minister is Peter Markey-Zai, an independent politician who is now mayor. of a small town in southern Hungary.

Marki-Zai will hold a rally in Budapest tomorrow, Saturday, just hours before the polls open on Sunday.

“Effective” rhetoric

The government, which has refused to supply arms to Ukraine, “has managed to reduce the issue of ‘Russian invasion’ to a very simple question: should Hungary participate in the war or not,” Hunyadi said.

“This message was much more effective than that of the opposition, which based its criticism” on the Hungarian prime minister’s relations with the Kremlin, he said.

Hunyadi also noted that “the regime’s propaganda machine played a decisive role”, “distorting reality” and the statements of the opposition.

Other analysts point to an electoral system designed to favor Fidesz.

“The rules of the game are absolutely equal,” said government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs.

Marky-Zay, 49, has taken on the difficult task of uniting six heterogeneous parties – right-wing, environmentalists and Social Democrats.

The parties agree that they want to overthrow the “authoritarian” Orban, they want to stop the “free” turn that the country has taken since 2010, in which many democratic rights have been violated, according to Brussels.

The choice “has never been so simple”, Marki-Zai stressed, adding that Hungarians should choose “Europe and not the East”, a reference to the convergence of Budapest with Moscow and Beijing under Prime Minister Orban.

International “isolation”

Orban became the target of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who in a video message asked him to choose a camp. In response, Hungary accused Ukraine of trying to interfere in the elections.

“If the price for protecting Hungarian interests is isolation, the prime minister will not hesitate,” Kovacs said, recalling “Hungary’s dependence” on Russia’s oil and gas.

While the government spokesman praises Hungary’s “economic success”, the opposition denounces the “irresponsibility” of the authorities amid rising inflation and a falling forint against the euro.

During the election campaign, the government stepped up measures aimed at attracting voters, imposing a cap on fuel prices and proceeding with tax refunds.

“But this generosity, which was considered the government’s secret weapon, has been eliminated by the dizzying rise in prices,” Andas Biro-Nagy of Policy Solutions remarked this week.

The election will be monitored for the first time by more than 200 international observers as there are concerns about fraud. At the same time, a referendum will be held on a bill that restricts the rights of LGBTQI people.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ