Hungary’s Opposition Unites Against Autocratic Prime Minister
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent reporting from Budapest
(Worthy News) – Six Hungarian opposition parties say they unite to oust the increasingly autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has suffered in the polls amid ongoing corruption scandals.
They plan to defeat Orbán‘s Fidesz party in the 2022 election, after a decade of failed attempts. Klára Dobrev of the Democratic Coalition and vice president of the European Parliament called the deal a “historical moment in politics.”
The parties formally agreed to coordinate a single joint candidate to oppose Orbán’s Fidesz party in each of Hungary’s 106 electoral districts and to run on a single electoral list.
However, the opposition parties have different political ideologies. They range from the left-leaning Democratic Coalition and liberal Momentum to the right-wing Jobbik party which was previously known for its anti-Semitic and anti-Roma rhetoric.
In a statement, they said that they would put aside their differences in pursuit of a “change in era.”
“The Hungarian people have their first real chance in a decade to shake off the corrupt and dishonest rule of Fidesz,” the parties stressed
”HISTORIC DAY”
Momentum chairman András Fekete-Győr said the agreement represented “a historic day” which “expressed the unity of the nation.”
Recent opinion polls suggest such a unity strategy could be effective in challenging Fidesz’s decade-long hold on power. In late November, Orbán broke a 130-year record to become the longest-serving Hungarian prime minister in history, including his first term between 1998 and 2002.
Critics say the 57-year-old leader has kept a tight grip over media, the judiciary, and other previously independent institutions. However, despite these efforts, Orbán has been unable to dominate the narrative completely.
He faces mounting public pressure over corruption scandals that included enriching family and friends with multi-billion euro European Union-funded contracts and projects.
Additionally, a mayor and a politician linked to Fidesz were caught up in sex scandals challenging the party’s professed traditional family values.
He has also faced criticism over his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and related mounting economic and social hardship. Measures included unnecessarily forcing thousands of seriously ill patients to leave hospitals to make way for expected COVID-19 sufferers.
CRITICS DETAINED
In addition, critics of the policies were detained while more recently soldiers were asked to help enforce an evening curfew and other measures in cities such as Budapest, the capital.
Amid the turmoil, a November survey by pollster Publicus Research showed that the six opposition parties held a four-point advantage over Fidesz — more than the poll’s 3.1 percent margin of error.
Yet, recent government-backed changes to the election law means joining forces is the only democratic way left for the opposition to defeat the long-time ruling party.
They face an uphill battle. International observers recalled Hungary’s 2014 parliamentary elections as “free but not fair.” The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported after the 2018 elections that “intimidating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing” had hindered voters’ ability to make a fully informed choice.
Orbán has also announced that local tax for small and medium-sized businesses would be halved from January 1, officially to support jobs during the coronavirus crisis. However, the local business tax is a vital source of revenue for especially opposition-run municipalities such as Budapest. Opposition leaders claim the tax cut will jeopardize basic services such as garbage collection and allow the nationalist government to exert political pressure on cities. “Halving this tax does not manage this crisis, but deepens it,” said Budapest’s liberal mayor Gergely Karácsony, who has been mentioned as a possible prime ministerial candidate.
POLITICAl PLEDGE
Orbán pledged that towns with fewer than 25,000 inhabitants would receive aid from the government, a reference to the countryside where Fidesz enjoys most support, while the financial situation of bigger towns would be “considered one by one.”
The political developments are closely watched by the EU which Orban compared to the Soviet Union.
He said in an interview that Brussels expects Hungary to accept its ideological orders like Moscow did when his nation was an occupied Soviet satellite state.
Orbán and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki recently threatened to veto the 1.8 billion euro EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund because payments were linked to respect for the rule of law.
They backed down after EU leaders stated that the rule-of-law link to funds will be applied objectively and only to safeguard the proper use of EU money. And to delay the practical application of the new regulation, Poland and Hungary can ask the EU’s top court to check if it is in line with EU treaties, which could take up to two years.
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