Hungary, Tisza overtaking Orban in the polls seven weeks before the vote
With seven weeks to go before the elections, polls put the premier's party at 35% and the challenger's party at 55%
Less than seven weeks before the Hungarian elections, support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in government since 2010 with his sovereignist Fidesz party, plummets in the polls. Increasingly gaining support is instead Tisza, the opposition - but still conservative - party of Peter Magyar, one of Orban's closest former collaborators who later left Fidesz, in open conflict with the prime minister.
Tisza was born less than two years ago, but in a short time it has picked up a lot of support among those dissatisfied with Orban's authoritarianism, so much so that in the latest Median polls the Magyar party is given a 20 percentage point lead among decided voters, up from 12 points in mid-January. Among those who say they have already decided who to vote for next on 12 April, Tisza is at 55 per cent against Fidesz's 35 per cent. The gap, the widest so far recorded by independent institutes, would put Tisza on the road to a more than large majority in the Hungarian Parliament.
The Median poll, one of the most reliable institutes in the country, shows that Orban's anti-Ukraine rhetoric has less and less hold on Hungarian voters. The current prime minister has focused his election campaign against his opponent Magyar by portraying him as an EU puppet and claiming that, in the event of Tisza's victory, Hungarian soldiers would be sent to die in Kiev: 'If we want to go to war, then vote for Tisza' is the slogan of his latest Facebook video. So far, however, Orban's illiberal policy has only led the EU to freeze some EUR 18 billion of funds intended for Hungary.
Magyar, for his part, promises to bring Hungary back into the European fold and to diversify energy supplies away from Russia. At the centre of his programme is above all the fight against corruption, which according to Tsiza has taken away financial resources from Hungarian health and education. Magyar accuses Orban of doing nothing to revive the country's economic growth and curb inflation, which is making the cost of living unbearable for a large segment of the Hungarian population.
The result of the Median poll indicates a wider lead than other independent institutes, some of which found a single-digit margin for Tisza. In contrast, institutes close to the government continue to predict a Fidesz victory. According to Hvg, Peter Magyar's party seems to have a better chance of attracting undecided voters than Orban's party. In addition to Fidesz and Tisza, the far-right Mi Hazank party, considered a potential ally of Orban's party, would also be able to pass the threshold to enter parliament.
