Hungarian Turanism

Marki-Zay blamed government propaganda on the dominant state-run media channels for the defeat of the opposition. Orban's ruling Fidesz party argued during the campaign that the opposition would send young Hungarians to die for Ukraine and this seemed to have a huge effect on mostly undecided voters.

Peter Marki-Zay, the conservative mayor of Hodmezovasarhely and leader of the joint opposition. Photo: Facebook

Supporters of Jobbik at an event to mark the 62nd anniversary of the 1956 uprising against communist rule and the Soviet Union in Budapest, Hungary, 23 October 2018. EPA-EFE/Balazs Mohai New European face

Hungary survived the spring wave of the virus virtually unscathed, with very low casualties, though at a high economic price. Polls in the summer showed that Fidesz actually increased its support by 5 per cent, or 400,000 voters. However, it all fell apart in the autumn, when voters found the government's response to the second, more serious wave wonting.

The presidents of the opposition parties - including the liberal Democratic Coalition, the Socialists, the young emerging Momentum, the leftist-liberal Dialogue, the greenish LMP and the former radical rightist Jobbik - have agreed to nominate only one candidate in each of the 106 individual constituencies.

Hungary will hold its 2018 parliamentary election on April 8, President Janos Ader said in a statement released through state news agency MTI on Thursday, quoted by Reuters.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party holds a comfortable lead over the main opposition, the nationalist Jobbik party, based on the latest opinion polls. The Socialists are a distant third.

A Hungarian European Parliament member who belongs to the nationalist opposition Jobbik party has been charged with spying on European Union institutions for Russia, prosecutors said on Dec. 6.

The main opposition party in Hungary Jobbik is trying to cut ties with its past as a far-right, anti-Semitic, radical formation. It is looking for popularity and plans to fight for power against the ruling FIDESZ  party during the 2018 elections, commented to Reuters Jobbik's leader Gábor Vona.

Hungary's parliamentary committee approved a draft law providing the country to not change their time and to stay on Daylight Saving Time (DST) all year.

Hungarian lawmakers on Nov. 8 blocked Prime Minister Viktor Orban's bid to change the constitution to bar the resettlement of refugees, after the radical right Jobbik party refused to support the bill.

While all 131 MPs of Orban's ruling right-wing coalition voted in favor, the bill failed to pick up an extra two votes to reach a required two-thirds majority.