EU
Election in Hungary: United opposition challenges Orban
Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, at a campaign event in Szekesfehervar. Photo: Petr David Josek/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Viktor Orban has ruled his country for twelve years. Critics see him as a populist who manipulates the population and personally uses EU funds. Can he continue as before?
Parliamentary elections began in the EU country of Hungary on Sunday morning. A broad alliance of six opposition parties is challenging the nationalist Viktor Orban, who has been in power for twelve years.
Recent opinion polls put Orban’s Fidesz party ahead by a few percentage points. The head of government is aiming for a fifth term in office, the fourth in a row.
Orban rails against opposition
The election is overshadowed by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In a recent television interview on Saturday evening, Orban accused the opposition of wanting to get involved in the war in neighboring Ukraine. “The left has made a pact with the Ukrainians and if they win, they will drag Hungary into the war,” he said.
In fact, there is no such pact, and Orban has not presented any evidence of it. The opposition alliance includes not only left and social democratic parties, but also green, liberal and right-wing conservatives. His lead candidate, 49-year-old Peter Marki-Zay, is a non-party Conservative and avowed Catholic.
friendship with Putin
Orban, in turn, has forged friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years. He only half-heartedly condemned the Russian war against Ukraine. At the opposition’s final rally in Budapest on Saturday evening, Marki-Zay accused the head of government of “treason” because of his attitude towards Moscow. “We are all ashamed of Viktor Orban,” he said. “Now let’s wash that shame away from us.”
Even before the Ukraine war, Orban had been in a permanent conflict with the EU. Over the course of his rule, he eroded democratic institutions, curtailed media freedom and damaged the independence of the judiciary. Critics also accuse him of corruption and the abuse of EU funding.
Observers fear electoral fraud
In order to remedy these abuses, the EU introduced a so-called rule of law mechanism at the end of 2020. Member countries that violate the principles of the rule of law can in future have their funding withdrawn. The EU Commission is already withholding funds from the Corona reconstruction fund earmarked for Hungary because the Orban government has not yet been able to credibly demonstrate their correct use.
Orban, who in 2014 proclaimed “illiberal democracy” based on the Russian model, also changed the electoral laws in such a way that it is becoming increasingly difficult for political competitors to vote him out. The shape of the constituencies and voting rights for ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries favor Orban’s Fidesz party.
Orban also unashamedly put government and state resources at the service of Fidesz campaigning. According to election researchers, the Fidesz camp spent eight to ten times as much money on the election campaign as the opposition. Classic election fraud is also feared. The legalization of the registration of bogus addresses and the photographing of ballot papers in the voting booth could encourage vote-buying and the shifting of one’s own voters to direct constituencies with a narrow majority.