BUDAPEST: Long-time nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces a united opposition for the first time Sunday as he goes head-to-head in general elections against conservative politician Peter Marki-Zay.
Here is a look at the two candidates in what is expected to be a close fight.
Orban, nationalist with a firm grip
At 58, Orban has ruled Hungary for 16 years, including 12 years consecutively as prime minister since 2010. He is currently the longest-serving leader in the European Union.
As a 26-year-old law student, he became a household name in Hungary in the dying days of communism with a stirring 1989 speech demanding democracy and that Soviet troops go home.
Orban became one of “new” Europe’s brightest stars and an MP in newly democratic and optimistic Hungary in 1990, co-founding the Alliance of Young Democrats party (Fidesz).
He quickly shed the mantle of young radical, however, and moulded Fidesz into a new centre-right force, steeped in family and Christian values.
It paid off handsomely. Orban showed a knack for connecting with ordinary voters, and became prime minister in 1998 aged just 35.
His first term in office was rocky, however. Orban was defeated by the Socialists in 2002 and again in 2006, before bouncing back in 2010 with a vengeance.
Armed with a two-thirds majority in parliament, Orban imposed top-down reform on institutions of the Hungarian state and introduced a new constitution steeped in conservative values.
He also changed the election rules to favour Fidesz and was re-elected in 2014 and 2018, both times with two-thirds majorities.
Critics at home and abroad say his sweeping changes undercut the independence of the judiciary and academic freedom, muzzle the press and rig the electoral system.
This created a headache for the European Union, as has his virulent anti-immigration stance – he erected a border fence in 2015 and has restricted the right to seek asylum.
As a self-styled defender of Christian Europe and an admirer of “illiberal democracy,” Orban has clashed repeatedly with the EU, while trying to forge closer ties with China and Russia.
Never passing up a chance to castigate the Brussels “elite”, Orban has courted conservatives such as former US president Donald Trump, Brazil’s far-right Jair Bolsonaro and at least until recently, Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Five fates that tell the story of Hungary under Orban
His government last year banned the “promotion” of homosexuality among minors, outraging critics further.
MZP, mayor inspired by Obama
A self-described “traditional conservative” and known by his initials MZP, father-of-seven Marki-Zay has already pulled off two stunning feats in his short political career.
In 2018, he was elected mayor in Hodmezovasarhely, a provincial city stronghold of Orban’s right-wing party Fidesz in southern Hungary.
Three years later, he swept to victory in a nationwide primary to unite six disparate opposition parties in challenging Orban.
Under the slogan “neither right nor left but upward!”, the 49-year-old is campaigning to reverse what he calls Orban’s “anti-democratic” politics and to uphold “democracy, rule of law, market economy, European integration”.
He accuses Orban of building “an authoritarian regime – like the Death Star in Star Wars” and of “screwing up” the country.
“Inspired” by former US president Barack Obama, Marki-Zay says his time in North America “opened his eyes to different people and cultures”.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has highlighted Orban’s close ties to Putin, alone among EU and NATO leaders.
A practising Catholic, Marki-Zay supports LGBTQ rights. He accuses Orban of waging “hate campaigns” against minorities like gays and migrants.
Marki-Zay told AFP last October that he “enthusiastically campaigned” for Orban in 1998 but became disillusioned after Orban returned to power in 2010.
Nevertheless, he has had to apologise for multiple gaffes, such as calling voters who backed his chief rival in the primaries “traitors”.
“If I only say nice things, people won’t hear my voice,” he told AFP.
Comments
Comments are closed.