Hungary’s opposition plans to run together against Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the 2022 parliamentary elections. The electoral alliance, which includes liberal, green, socialist and right-wing parties, announced in a statement yesterday that it would restore the country to “the freedom and prosperity” it was promised at the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago.
So far the opposition in Hungary has been very fragmented. In order to win against Orban’s FIDESZ party, the opposition parties now want to compete in the 2022 election with a common nationwide list and only put up one candidate in each constituency. All parties involved also undertook to no longer work with the FIDESZ party.
Orban under pressure
According to a poll published on Wednesday by the opinion research institute Median, 41 percent of those questioned want to vote for the opposition in the next election and only 39 percent for the ruling FISEZ party.
Orban is under increasing pressure because of the coronavirus crisis and a scandal involving a leading MEP from his party. Orban’s confidante Jozsef Szajer was caught at a gay sex party in Brussels that violated the coronavirus rules. Szajer then left FIDESZ and resigned his mandate in the European Parliament.
Alliance already in local elections
The opposition has long accused Orban, who has ruled for ten years, and his party of increasingly authoritarian rule. The right-wing nationalist prime minister has been criticized internationally for years because of the restriction of civil rights, the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the media and freedom of expression. He was little impressed by a rule of law procedure by the EU and several judgments by the European Court of Justice.
A number of Hungarian opposition parties had already joined forces in the local elections in October 2019. In this way, the opposition managed to capture several town halls, including the post of mayor of Budapest.
