Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party is maintaining a significant lead over its leftist rivals, with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also enjoying good polling, the latest numbers suggest.
Only days out from Hungary’s April 3 general election, the country’s right-leaning populist government is leading significantly in the polls.
Running on a platform of not getting Hungary involved in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict, as well as protecting Hungarian children from “LGBT” propaganda, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party now appears set for reelection with around half of the national vote, should the polling be accurate.
Meanwhile, the country’s leftist leaning opposition — a conglomerate of parties, including fascists and communists, running under the banner “United for Hungary” — has struggled to keep pace, with the group now finding itself trailing by six per cent in the polls.
The rival coalition has so far largely focused on trying to peg Orbán as undermining democracy, describing the leader’s administrations “the most corrupt Hungarian regime in the past thousand years”. The campaign may be considered a bold claim, given the last leftist government in Hungary collapsed over the leaking of scandalous tapes of the Prime Minister admitting he had constantly lied to the Hungarian people.
However, according to a report by Magyar Nemzet, it appears that the smear tactics in this election campaign are not bearing much fruit, with the current Prime Minister remaining popular with voters, his support ranging between 52 and 58 per cent in polls over the last 18 weeks.
Meanwhile, the leftist leader of the country’s opposition, Péter Márki-Zay, has not fared nearly as well, with support for the Prime Ministerial candidate failing to ever breach 29 per cent support amongst voters, and is currently floating around 25 per cent — again assuming accurate polling.
Hungarian Govt on Ukraine: ‘We Must Not Let the Left Drag Hungary Into This War’https://t.co/yB8bFWo0uj
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 24, 2022
While initially centred around the issues of democracy, immigration, and leftist values seeping in from the Western world, the Hungarian election campaign has since shifted significantly as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Now, a major element of contention is whether or not Hungary should get involved in the conflict, and in what way, with Fidesz and the United for Hungary rainbow coalition having radically different conceptions of the country’s place in the world order.
Orbán and his party have remained adamant that Hungary should stay out of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, denouncing alleged attempts from the left to “drag” the nation into the war.
“Hungary must stay out of an armed conflict,” Orbán has previously said. “The [Hungarian] left-wing’s proposal to send [Hungarian] soldiers and weapons to Ukraine is therefore hugely irresponsible.”
“We must not let the Left drag Hungary into this war!” he continued, noting that the country’s own security is its “most important interest”.
Orban’s opposition has accused him of serving Russia in his refusal to let Hungary get involved in a foreign war. Márki-Zay has said Orbán is parrotting Russian talking points, saying that the current PM is on the “dark side” of history.
Márki-Zay has, according to Magyar Nemzet, reportedly already agreed with Ukraine that Hungary will send weapons should he be elected to the position of Prime Minister, in contrast to the current administration, which has actively blocked arms so much as transiting through the country.
“A few hundred kilometers from our borders, people are fighting for their freedom in front of their aggressive friend, who is bombing hospitals, schools, nuclear power plants,” the opposition candidate wrote online. “And it is still the most important thing for you to lie about the opposition and echo Putin’s propaganda. Shame!”
” The bet is clear: you and Putin or the West and Europe? The dark side of history or the right side,” he went on to say.
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