Parliamentary elections began in Hungary, an EU country, on Sunday morning. A broad alliance of six opposition parties is challenging 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 wants a fifth term, the fourth in a row.
Orban against the opposition
The election is overshadowed by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In a recent television interview on Saturday night, 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 provided any evidence of it. The opposition alliance includes not only left-wing and social-democratic parties, but also green, liberal and right-wing conservatives. Its leading candidate, 49-year-old Peter Marki-Zay, is a non-party conservative and avowed Catholic.
friendship with Putin
Orban, meanwhile, has established friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years. He only halfheartedly condemned the Russian war against Ukraine. At the final opposition rally in Budapest on Saturday night, 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 war in Ukraine, Orban was in permanent conflict with the EU. Over the course of his rule, he eroded democratic institutions, restricted media freedom, and undermined the independence of the judiciary. Critics also accuse him of corruption and abuse of EU funding.
Observers fear electoral fraud
To remedy these abuses, the EU introduced the so-called rule of law mechanism at the end of 2020. Member countries that violate the principles of the rule of law may, in the future, have their funding withdrawn. The EU Commission is already withholding funds from the Corona reconstruction fund destined for Hungary because the Orban government has yet to credibly demonstrate its correct use.
Orban, who in 2014 proclaimed “illiberal democracy” based on the Russian model, has also changed electoral laws in such a way that it is becoming increasingly difficult for political competitors to eliminate him. The shape of constituencies and voting rights for ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries favor Orban’s Fidesz party.
Orban also shamelessly put government and state resources at the service of the Fidesz campaign. According to election researchers, the Fidesz camp spent eight to ten times more money on the election campaign than the opposition. Classic electoral fraud is also feared. Legalizing false address registration and photographing ballot papers in polling booths could encourage vote buying and the movement of voters themselves to direct constituencies with a narrow majority.