One of the hallmarks of the Orbán regime is the systemic and blatant nature of corruption involving key Fidesz political leaders, their oligarchs and the party’s media empire. In this context, one can only imagine how frustrating and infuriating it must be for someone like Zsolt Császy, the victim of a show trial, to have to serve a prison sentence […]
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 […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told Kossuth Rádió Friday morning that he was “in a state of shock,” after he heard that President Donald Trump will withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Mr. Orbán then noted that on the Hungarian right, and in Hungarian society, the science of climate change is not called into question. “In […]
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 […]
Géza Jeszenszky, Hungary’s former ambassador to Oslo under the second Orbán cabinet and the country’s ambassador to Washington under Viktor Orbán’s first term in power, suggested that Hungarians are being brainwashed today, which is why so many in Hungary fail to see the risk associated with the government’s pro-Putin and pro-Russian politics. Mr. Jeszenszky compared this to the brainwashing in […]
László Botka, the Hungarian Socialist Party’s (MSZP) candidate for prime minister, is statistically tied in popularity with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, according to a poll by the Republikon Intézet. Mr. Orbán’s favorability rating rests at 46%, followed by Mr. Botka at 44%. Gábor Vona, the leader of the Jobbik party, stands at 31% among the main contenders for prime minister […]
The fledgling Momentum Mozgalom had the challenging task of collecting at least 138,000 signatures within just 30 days, in order to force a referendum on withdrawing the Budapest bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. On Friday morning, Momentum’s young leaders announced that they, along with some of the smallest opposition parties, had collected more than 266,000 signatures. Initially, the […]
