On Sunday, Orban’s plan will be severely tested in national elections where opinion polls show that six opposition parties united for the first time are an impressive distance from the overthrow of Fidesz’s nationalist party. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Fidesz swept the 2018 election in a fierce anti-immigration campaign that won him the praise of former US President Donald Trump and the far right of Europe and led him into a trajectory of conflict with Brussels. Now the 58-year-old leader, who has turned Hungary into a self-proclaimed “free democracy” with firm control of the media and loyalists in charge of the top institutions, acknowledges that this election will not be a walk-in. “The stakes of this election are, even for an old horse like me, much higher than I could have imagined,” said Orban, who has split evenly between the opposition and the ruling party since the first post-communist election. Hungary in 1990, he told the pro-government HirTV channel on Monday. Polls give Orban’s party a narrow lead, but with about one-fifth of Hungary’s 8 million voters still undecided, the April 3 vote could go ahead anyway. The vote will decide whether Brussels will continue to face resistance from Hungary and Poland over media freedoms, the rule of law and minority rights, or whether Warsaw will remain isolated in its confrontation with European institutions. Defending conservative Christian family values against what he calls the “gender madness” that is now sweeping Western Europe is part of Orban’s ongoing campaign. On Sunday, Hungarians will also vote in a government referendum on sex-oriented workshops in schools, a vote that rights groups have condemned saying it fueled prejudice against the LGBTQ community. read more Orban is ahead of the election EAST OR WEST? Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban leaves the stage after his annual speech on the state of the nation in Budapest, Hungary, February 10, 2019. REUTERS / Bernadett Szabo / File Photo Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overturned Orban’s scenario, shedding new light on his close ties with Moscow. He responded by cracking down on Hungarians’ desire for security, presenting them on billboards as their protector, and accusing opposition politicians of trying to drag Hungary into the war, a charge they have denied. However, opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay seized the opportunity, telling voters he was faced with a choice between West and East, criticizing Orban’s close relationship with Russia and what he said was an erosion of democratic rights. Campaigning in Moscow Square in Budapest, a stronghold of the opposition, Marki-Zay said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was rebuilding the Soviet empire and that Orban “could not yet decide how to keep them at an equal distance.” victims. . “ Addressing cheering supporters, the conservative mayor of the small town and a Catholic father of seven, referred to the Hungarian uprising that was suppressed by Soviet tanks almost 66 years ago when it struck Orban. “After 1956 there is still a Hungarian politician who cannot say that we must always stand against the attacker,” he said. Marki-Zay leads a six-party coalition across the Hungarian political spectrum that has joined forces, galvanizing the possibility of ousting Orban. Its members, from the left-wing Democratic Coalition to the liberal Momentum and Jobbik, a far-right party that has become moderate, have put aside most of their differences over the campaign, but policy differences could be challenging if Marki-Zay win on Sunday. He promised to fight corruption, gain access to European Union funds frozen by Brussels to fight the rule of law and introduce the euro. “What will decide this election is that the majority has had enough for these 12 years,” said Santor Laszlo, who attended the Markey-Zay rally in the capital. According to the latest Zavecz Research poll, Fidesz was three percentage points ahead of the opposition with 39% support. Tibor Zavecz, director of the think tank, said Fidesz seemed to have a better chance of winning, but much would depend on a last-minute voter mobilization. He said about 8% of the electorate, about 600,000 people, said they would vote, but still did not have a preferred choice. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Krisztina Edited by Tomasz Janowski Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
