Election 2018: 414 parties to choose from?

If a party has a candidate in each electoral district it receives 600 million forints (EUR 1.9M) state subsidy for campaign. As a result, many see the forthcoming elections as a perfect opportunity for swift enrichment. Thus, it is not surprising that – according to an answer sent by National Office for the Judiciary (NOJ) to atv.hu – there are more than 400 parties registered or being registered. Fortunately, new amendments passed recently try to hinder speculators.

Many parties, fewer programs

Obviously, electoral campaign has started in Hungary. There are posters everywhere and smaller parties are announcing their programs one after the other. Meanwhile, the most serious ones wait until next year. However,

not all of them publish their thoughts about where they would lead Hungary if they win the elections.

For example, governing parties Fidesz-KDNP have won a super-majority twice since 2010 without publishing a political agenda since 2006. In contrast, opposition parties like Jobbik, the socialists or green party LMP have always published a detailed program.

Elections of 2018 might cost pretty much

According to data of the NOJ there are 231 registered parties in Hungary while 183 of them are in the process of being registered. Hence, altogether 414 parties can take part in the 2018 elections. A party having 27 electoral district candidates and 13,500 supporting signatures can have a national list meaning 149 million forints (EUR 480,000) subsidy as campaign support. If a party is able to have 106 electoral district candidates it can receive 597 million forints.

To start with, 14 parties could not cross the 5% minimum vote percentage in the 2014 elections. According to State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO)

they received altogether 3.5 billion forints (EUR 11.2M) for their campaign in 2014.