The opposition isn’t profiting from Fidesz’s loss of popularity

A left-wing analyst finds it devastating for the opposition that it has not been able to increase its voting base at a time when economic difficulties have eroded support for the governing party.

The latest Median poll shows that Fidesz has lost 400 thousand potential voters since February, while support for the eleven opposition parties is stagnating. 52 percent of respondents would favour a change in government, but opposition parties are only supported by 31 percent.

On Klubrádió, left-wing political analyst Zoltán Lakner worries that despite its difficulties with inflation and stagnation, Fidesz might win two thirds of the seats allotted to Hungary within the European Parliament next year, as out of the eleven opposition parties, only two or three are likely to pass the 5 percent threshold. The votes cast for the rest, about 10 to 12 percentage points, will be lost, he fears. The larger opposition parties want to run on their own, in what he sees as a futile attempt to squeeze the failing ones out of politics and win over their supporters. Such parties, he explains (without mentioning the largest, Ferenc Gyurcsány’s Democratic Coalition) are not strong or attractive enough to subdue the rest. On the other hand, he concludes, differences and mutual grudges are too strong for the opposition parties to coalesce for the European elections.

Tags: Fidesz, opposition, polls