Fidesz to modify electoral rules in Hungary – Budapest Mayor Karácsony forms harsh judgement

Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, has said ruling Fidesz wanted to boost its own election chances by reducing the number of electoral districts in the capital and thereby diluting the city’s voting weight in parliament relative to its population.

Karácsony accuses Fidesz of seeking to amend election law to favour itself

Fidesz’s proposal would reduce the number of electoral districts in Budapest from 18 to 16, a statement from Karácsony’s office said on Tuesday.

“What’s more, they want to shove this down the throats of lawmakers with a sneaky committee amendment, without even allowing a regular parliamentary debate,” Karácsony said. “This is their way of taking revenge on the capital for [the majority of the electorate] voting against the government last time. If they keep this up, an even larger share of the electorate will vote against them next time.”

Alexandra Szentkirályi, the head of Fidesz’s Budapest chapter, said Karácsony was “lying” about the proposed amendment, arguing that legislators had a duty to make changes to the electoral districts to reflect their changing populations.

In a Facebook post, Szentkirályi insisted that because Karácsony is an “experienced sociologist and polltaker”, he was “deliberately twisting the truth … rather than simply being uninformed”.

“He falsely claims that the government is reducing the number of electoral districts in Budapest as punishment because Budapest residents didn’t vote for Fidesz,” Szentkirályi said.

She said the capital’s population had grown under the administration of former mayor István Tarlós before shrinking by about 66,000 during Karacsony’s first term between 2019 and 2024.

She added that this required decision-makers to reapportion the electoral districts accordingly, noting that under the law, they have to have similar populations.

László Sebián-Petrovszki, the party director of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK), said after a meeting of parliament’s judiciary committee that Fidesz KDNP submitted a 65-page proposal aiming to redraw electroral district lines in Budapest and a few counties. He called it “outrageous” that the proposal was submitted “without any consultation or professional groundwork”.

He pointed to Budapest’s 11th district as an example, which would be divided into four electoral districts.

Several points of the proposal would have practical disadvantages for the voters, Sebián-Petrovszki said. The ballots would be cast without envelopes, “which could lead to irregularities,” he added.

Regarding the re-drawing of electoral maps in counties, Sebián-Petrovszki said the steep population decline in Somogy County could warrant measures. At the same time, “the proposal also features a complete revamp of Fejár and Csongrád-Csanád counties,” he said.

Read also:

• Hungarian opposition DK to nominate own candidates in all 106 individual constituencies in 2026
• Fidesz confident they will win Hungarian elections in 2026

Featured image: depositphotos.com