Fidesz candidates win two local elections

A pro-government columnist takes the results of Sunday’s local elections as proof that the opposition parties stand no chance to defeat Fidesz in 2022. His left-wing counterpart calls for more unity on the Left.

In a sarcastic Magyar Nemzet piece, Zsolt Bayer recalls how the left-wing media hoped that the opposition candidate would win in the municipal election in the city of Mohács, in southern Hungary, and speculated that such a victory might start the decline of the governing party. The pro-government pundit underlines that in Mohács the Fidesz candidate secured 57 per cent of the vote, and even more people voted for him than for the former Fidesz mayor. Bayer adds that Fidesz candidates won in another municipal election at Gánt, a village in north-central Hungary, as well. Bayer thus thinks that the opposition’s hopes of defeating Fidesz in 2022 are ‘pie in the sky’.

In Népszava, Tamás Ungár attributes the opposition defeat to Fidesz domination in the media and public sector, and Momentum’s unwillingness to support the joint candidate of the opposition. The left-wing columnist speculates that by joining the opposition alliance, Momentum would have helped send a strong message to encourage undecided voters to support the opposition in the hope of getting rid of Fidesz.

Tags: 2022, election, Fidesz, opposition