Oops - a surprising result at an interim local election today

HUNGARY - In Brief 25 Feb 2018 by Istvan Racz

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It was only a few days ago that we published our latest report, saying repeatedly that Fidesz was heading safely towards a big victory at the parliamentary election on April 8. Opinion polls still strongly suggest that outlook, but as it happened, an interim local election held today and followed by a lot of public attention just came out very differently.This unexpected event took place in Hódmezővásárhely (the reader had better not even try to pronounce this name), by local standards a relatively populous (47,000 inhabitants) town in south-eastern Hungary, where an interim election was held today for the position of the city mayor. The importance of this settlement is drawn from the fact that it has been considered for long as a genuine Fidesz stronghold, the home city of cabinet minister János Lázár, who used to be mayor of the town at earlier times. In a rare concerted action, all opposition parties joined forces and stood behind a single candidate, a right-wing but anti-Fidesz local politician, trying to make a showcase, which could mobilize their voters for the upcoming nationwide elections. And they won, beating the 'official' Fidesz candidate with a surprisingly big, 57:43 lead, despite a rather tough campaign done by Fidesz, full of discrediting attempts and intimidation. The outturn at today's vote has proven to be unusually high, so maybe Fidesz just overdid the campaign and it backfired, or there may have been deeper, structural reasons driving big numbers of voters to the ballots.Of course, this will not turn everything upside-down, as regards the odds for the parliamentary election, especially taking into account the almost extreme lack of cooperation on ...