Hungary's opposition scored its biggest election victory in a decade - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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Euronews wrote:Hungary local elections: Opposition candidate Karácsony unseats Fidesz-backed incumbent in Budapest

By Euronews with Reuters• last updated: 14/10/2019 - 08:22

Hungary's opposition scored its biggest election victory in a decade on Sunday when opposition challenger Gergely Karacsony defeated ruling party-backed incumbent Istvan Tarlos in the Budapest mayoral election.

With 81.6% of votes counted, Karacsony had 50.6% support compared with 44.3% for Tarlos according to data on the National Election Office website, putting the Hungarian opposition on track for its biggest political win in a decade.

Opposition parties were also projected to win a majority in the Budapest General Assembly with 17 members, compared with 14 delegates from Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance and two independents.


"This is the first step towards changing Hungary," Karacsony said in a Facebook post. "We will take Budapest back to Europe."

Fidesz-backed mayor Istvan Tarlos conceded defeat, congratulating Karacsony on his victory.

Budapest is home to about a fifth of Hungary’s population of 10 million, but it is responsible for more than a third of its economic output and plays an outsized role in all walks of national life.

"We gave everyone a lesson on democracy. ... An opposition unity that voters have long expected has been formed, and the result tells us this is the path to take onwards," Karacsony told cheering supporters.

"Changing Budapest and the major cities is the first step toward changing Hungary," he said.

The result will not affect Prime Minister Viktor Orban's grip on national power. His ruling Fidesz party remains wildly popular in rural areas.

No general election is due until 2022 and Orban, who's been in power since 2010, holds a huge majority in parliament.

But Sunday’s nationwide local elections were seen as a key test of an opposition strategy of rallying behind a single candidate against Fidesz, which has scored seven consecutive landslide election wins since 2010 on the national, municipal and European levels.

Naz Masraff, an analyst at think tank Teneo Intelligence said the opposition's showing could solidify cooperation between opposition parties ahead of the 2022 general election.

"But forming a wide opposition project will still prove to be very difficult ahead of parliamentary elections, given the need to align diverging priorities ranging from the centre-right Jobbik to Liberal Momentum," he said in a note before Sunday's vote.

Besides the new strategy of the opposition, EP election results also may have had a role. I mean the lack of a widely expected populist breakthrough in European politics, which was regarded as Orbán's defeat at a European level as well.

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Karácsony means Christmas, by the way. :)

:cheers:
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Doesnt Hungary have a far right party, Jobik? If the non-Fidesz side gains ground, will (do?) the Jobik voters switch to Fidesz?

Im curious if this is change in Hungary in general, an urban/progressive blip that will pass in time or an urban/rural divide.
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But Sunday’s nationwide local elections were seen as a key test of an opposition strategy of rallying behind a single candidate against Fidesz, which has scored seven consecutive landslide election wins since 2010 on the national, municipal and European levels.


This time around, five opposition parties, including Jobbik, have banded together to support a single candidate to circumvent the changes to election rules Prime Minister Orban introduced in 2010. Under the current electoral law, opposition parties have no chance to win unless they join forces. The poll taken before the mayoral election showed that the opposition candidate was 5% behind the Fidesz-backed candidate and it was quite a turnaround.

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Thunderhawk wrote:Doesnt Hungary have a far right party, Jobik? If the non-Fidesz side gains ground, will (do?) the Jobik voters switch to Fidesz?

It's Jobbik, actually, which means Better One. It's also an acronym, Jobboldali Ifjúsági Közösség - Community of Right-wing Youth. The party's official name is Movement for a Better Hungary.

In my opinion their voters rather consider themselves anti-Fidesz, or more precisely anti-Orbán, but I'm not sure.

Thunderhawk wrote:Im curious if this is change in Hungary in general, an urban/progressive blip that will pass in time or an urban/rural divide.

That's the big question, of course. I wonder if the results were a shocker to the government because they shocked me a bit. :) I don't think it was just a blip, I'd rather consider it groundbreaking.

ThirdTerm wrote:
This time around, five opposition parties, including Jobbik, have banded together to support a single candidate to circumvent the changes to election rules Prime Minister Orban introduced in 2010. Under the current electoral law, opposition parties have no chance to win unless they join forces. The poll taken before the mayoral election showed that the opposition candidate was 5% behind the Fidesz-backed candidate and it was quite a turnaround.


Századvég (End of Century) is a heavily pro-government pollster, the most pro-government perhaps. They're a mouthpiece for the government actually.
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