“Hundreds of thousands of undecided voters were persuaded by Orban’s simple message,” our Program Director Zsuzsanna Szelenyi wrote in her piece for Carnegie Europe.
She argued that “Fidesz were exceptionally good at mobilizing their vote in rural areas,” and the party’s overwhelming power in these areas “underlines the haemorrhaging of the right-wing Jobbik party in these places. Jobbik had allied with the left-liberal and green parties as part of the united opposition in these elections. It seems that a large part of their one million voters, instead of following them, turned to Fidesz or the Our Homeland”, a new far-right party.
She also pointed out that “Russia’s war in Ukraine had a decisive impact on the election campaign,” and “the ruling party’s communications team came up with the message that by supporting Ukraine, the opposition were dangerous warmongers and would involve Hungary in the conflict.”
“The Hungarian opposition faces a huge dilemma: now that the united platform has failed so badly, what next? It will take several months or years until they recover and are able to answer this question,” she added.
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