The Economist discusses the plight of Hungary’s opposition

Hungary is Viktor Orban’s playground. He has ruled it with an iron rod since 2010, reports The Economist. But theoretically, after the big loss of power in the capital and ten of the 23 other county-level cities in the country, he should be scared. The main reason why the opposition won was mostly that the perennially fractured opposition for once managed to unite and form a coalition settling on one contender instead of each having their own.

Now if the opposition continues with the same pattern, the ruling party might lose its majority in the country, along with the privilege to rule the country. To be fair, the New Year Speech by the current Prime Minister was very bland consisting of mundane issues, such as education, health, etc., instead of his usual rant about the enemies within and outside.

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However, those plans are highly subjective and based mostly on optimism. Deciding on a Prime Minister is majorly different from choosing a mayor, and electing mayors for a few constituencies is in itself much changed from picking the same for each of the country’s 106 single-member constituencies, as well as drawing up a joint party list for the 93 proportionally elected MPs. If the opposition parties decide on different lists, then Fidesz has the election in the bag. The hardest choice will probably be about who to pick as prospective Prime Minister.

There are some serious contenders; a top tier prospect could be the Mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony. But Mr Orban is already tying him in knots, linking money for the city to the construction of a new stadium for the World Athletics Championships in 2023, which the mayor said on the campaign trail that he did not want to build. Moreover, he insists that he does not want the job and would much rather focus on the job he already has. His party is not big outside the capital.

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Despite his chaotic term, some are looking at the Former Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, who leads the largest opposition party, Democratic Coalition, to lead them to the light. However, he considers himself to be too polarising and suggests that they need an integrator. He has recommended his wife, Clara Dobrev, as a prospect. She is currently a vice-president of the European Parliament, having scored a remarkable success at the head of the Democratic Coalition’s list in last year’s Euro-election. Mr Orban, having held some resentment it seems, insists on calling her Mrs Gyurcsany. Her willingness to take the position is not known yet.

The woman that could take it all, however, is Anna Donath, who is a lot less known. She is just 32, a member of the European Parliament for her party Momentum Movement, which did pretty well in the polls for having been founded in 2017. There are rumours still that she might not want the job either.

Although the real problem is that it does not look like Mr Orban would be going out of power any time soon. He has gotten rid of his problems with the EU over Hungary’s erosion of law. The economy is on its way up; it grew by 5% last year. The thing that can be held against him is corruption. Last week, Transparency International, a watchdog, rated Hungary the second most corrupt country in the EU, beaten only by Bulgaria. “But,” sniffs one diplomat, “as long as incomes are going up, Hungarians don’t seem to care.”

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Source: economist.com