László Botka, the Hungarian Socialist Party’s nominee for prime minister in the 2018 elections, and István Ujhelyi, MSZP’s vice president, both resigned on Monday, throwing the largest party of the democratic opposition into turmoil a mere seven months before the national vote. Mr. Botka claimed that “secret agents” of Fidesz within both MSZP and in the broader left-centre opposition made […]
Hungary’s ruling regime, which passed a probably unconstitutional law restricting Jobbik and all other parties from buying advertisements on billboards at discounted prices, begins the weekend with a rude awakening. If the opposition party is no longer allowed to purchase advertising space at below market rates, why not just buy the physical billboard altogether, through an advantageous financing agreement with […]
Forty percent of Hungarians believe that there is a realistic chance at booting the ruling Fidesz party from power in the spring 2018 elections, while 37% believe that there is no chance of this whatsoever–this, according to a new poll released by Závecz Research. The poll also found that 43% of respondents would prefer a new government next year, while […]
Gábor Vona, leader of Hungary’s Jobbik party, is calling on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government to issue a formal apology to the Roma minority. He accuses the ruling Fidesz party of deliberately eliminating any possibility for upward social mobility within the country’s largest minority group. Speaking in the town of Eger, a few days after he confirmed in a television […]
According to the results of the latest Republikon poll, this time exploring party preferences among Budapest residents, if it were just up to the Hungarian capital’s voters, Hungary would have a left-centre or liberal government following the spring 2018 elections. Fully 35% of all Budapest residents indicated that they prefer a new left-centre government, while 27% would rather see Prime […]
Ildikó Lendvai, the former Chairperson of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and Member of Parliament for twenty years (1994-2014), has been critical of her liberal and left-centre colleagues who believe that the only way to topple the authoritarian Orbán regime is to enter into a partnership with the once far-right, but now more moderate Jobbik party ahead of the 2018 […]
We can say with a degree of certainty that the governing Fidesz party’s downward popularity numbers, as seen in the polls of the past months, represent a clear trend in Hungarian politics away from Viktor Orbán, who faces a national election in spring 2018. According to the Republikon poll released this week, Fidesz has dropped by 6% in the last […]
According to a Závecz Research poll conducted between May 7-14, 2017, the ruling Fidesz party has seen its support drop by 8% in Budapest and by 9% in larger rural towns. Meanwhile, the Jobbik party has seen its fortunes rise by 6% in these areas. All in all, a trend already detected by previous polls is continuing: Prime Minister Viktor […]
The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and Jobbik have both seen their support rise, while Fidesz dipped slightly in the newest Republikon poll. While the series of mass protests, the contentious anti-CEU legislation and Jobbik’s billboard campaign against Fidesz corruption have resulted in a modest boost in popular support for the two largest opposition parties, all of these events have had […]
Two municipal by-elections are scheduled for Sunday in Budapest and both could serve as an indication of what impact half a dozen mass protests (each drawing tens of thousands) and the scandal surrounding Central European University have had on voting intentions, less than a year before national elections. Both by-elections are in areas that, in any other country, would likely […]
