Elections on 12 April: what awaits Hungary?
With parliamentary elections just a fortnight away, things are getting nastier. Long-term Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is trailing behind in the polls and is accusing the opposition party Tisza of being an EU-Ukraine puppet. The challengers, for their part, are accusing the government of ignoring the nation's problems. Meanwhile, Brussels is investigating allegations that the Hungarian foreign minister has been feeding internal information to Moscow.
The PM has run out of ideas
Orbán seems to be lost for words, comments Népszava.
“The prime minister apparently doubts both specific poll figures and wider trend predictions: he has not uttered a word about the fact that the most reliable polling organisation to date [Medián] is predicting a two-party parliament. ... Ideologically speaking, this situation does not reflect Hungarian society as a whole, but neither do the Medián figures. Rather, they show that in the space of only two years, a new and impromptu political movement has rallied the majority of voters behind it, solely on the basis of the message that Orbán must go – leaving someone by the name of Viktor Orbán very hard put to offer any meaningful response.”
At an economic dead end
The party that has been in power for so long can no longer solve the country's problems, according to Cyprus Mail:
“Other European countries also fall for populist leaders from time to time: Slovakia and the Czech Republic have them at the moment, and even the United Kingdom might have one (Nigel Farage) after the next election. But Hungary has elected Orban in four consecutive elections. What makes it interesting is that this time Orban may lose. The election is due on April 12, and for months now his Fidesz Party has trailed the opposition Tisza Party by a wide margin – generally around 10 per cent. The real cause of his problems is a stagnant economy, but he can’t fix that and he has started to panic.”
Has Moscow taken control?
The fact that Orbán is railing so vehemently against Ukraine and the EU during the election campaign makes LB.ua suspicious:
“By ramping up the myth of ‘Ukrainian interference’, Orbán is attempting to obscure reality – namely, Hungary's de facto loss of sovereign control to the Kremlin. For how else to describe a situation where the Hungarian government is more concerned with blocking aid to Ukraine and lobbying for Russian interests in the EU than with addressing the problems of its own country? And the fact that the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs regularly reports to Moscow?”
Something has to give
Even if Fidesz wins again, Orbán will face pressure from Brussels, writes Polityka:
“The question is: what will happen next? Even if he does win – how does he envisage continuing to coexist with the European Union? He has literally blocked or threatened to block everything. No one trusts him; the rest of the continent thinks he's a henchman of Russia, Maga and Trump. No matter the outcome of the elections on 12 April, something will change in Hungary. Whether it is for the better, however, remains to be seen.”