Hungary will elect a new parliament on April 3rd, according to the European edition of Politico, noting that the vote is expected to yield close results between the ruling Christian Democrats from Fidesz and the united opposition.
The vote comes at a time when Budapest is threatened with harsh punitive measures by Brussels over standards of the rule of law.
Orban and his party are expected to face a six-party opposition coalition that chose centrist politician Peter Marki-Zay as a common candidate for prime minister.
In recent months, some opinion polls have put Fidesz and the opposition alliance on par, although the opposition appears to have lost some ground in late 2021.
The opposition alliance, which ranges from liberal groups to the right-wing Jobbik party, faces a number of challenges, from internal divisions to unequal conditions when it comes to media access and funding.
However, opposition leaders have vowed to put their differences aside in an attempt to defeat Orbán, who has been accused of undermining Hungary's democratic norms and independent institutions.
On the same day as the election, Hungarians will vote in a government-initiated referendum on LGBTQ + rights. This move follows the approval last year of legal changes restricting the depiction of LGBTQ + identities for people under 18.
On Tuesday night, a group of 10 Hungarian human rights groups issued a statement urging the public to cast invalid ballots in the referendum, hoping the vote would be invalid if it did not gather enough participants.
Ahead of the election, the Hungarian government announced an increase in the salaries of participants in the public construction scheme, an increase in pension payments, a freeze on retail mortgage interest rates and an increase in the minimum wage. Meanwhile, the opposition criticized Orban's tackling of the coronavirus pandemic and tried to emphasize his anti-corruption qualities.
No comments:
Post a Comment