On the central square in Veszprém, a medium-sized town near the Hungarian Lake Balaton, enthusiastic volunteers in blue vests push a flag in the hands of all passers-by. There is a lot of campaigning going on here in the run-up to the parliamentary elections next Sunday. Not by one party, but by six at the same time. “United Opposition”, the flags read. For the first time, almost all opposition parties in Hungary have jointly formed a list of candidates.
From left to right, the ideals of the opposition parties differ widely politically. But one thing unites them: the loathing of Prime Minister Orbán, who has been in power in Hungary since 2012. Corruption within the party is the biggest frustration: “Everything goes unpunished. Good people stay in the background and mean people are right”, parliament candidate Balázs Csonka shouts through the microphone.
Born out of necessity
Opposition parties say they are delighted with the broad cooperation. Nevertheless, the occasional coalition was born mainly out of necessity. In 2020, the Hungarian parliament, where Orbán’s Fidesz party has a majority, determined that a party must have a candidate in at least 50 constituencies in order to run in parliamentary elections.
“Fidesz has changed the electoral law in such a way that we have to form a coalition before we go into government,” complains Klára Dobrev, MEP on behalf of the Democratic Coalition party. But now she is cautiously optimistic. “It took us a few years, but I think Fidesz really has reason to fear us now.”
Hardly any media attention
But however great the optimism, in Orbán’s Hungary it has become difficult to counteract. The opposition parties, for example, complain that they receive little attention in the media, of which 85 percent is under the control of Orbán and his allies. On the day opposition leader Péter Márki-Zay got his only five minutes of airtime on state television, Orbán’s speech was broadcast several times uncritically.
The joint meetings in squares are therefore not only logical in campaign time, but also necessary for the opposition. The many Hungarians who only follow the state media hardly come into contact with their program.
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