HUNGARY ON THE EVE OF THE ELECTIONS 2022

In: Naučno-analitičeskij vestnik Instituta Evropy RAN, Band 23, Heft 5, S. 77-83

Abstract

In the article, the author analyzes the «pre-elections» that took place in Hungary in September – October 2021, in other words, the «primaries» of the opposition. Such an attempt of being elected to the Parliament in Central European countries was applied for the first time since the change of the system and its result, judging by the subsequent emotions of the participants, cannot yet be considered unambiguous. There is no such norm in the Constitution of the country, however, instead of creating an electoral coalition, as, for example, in the neighboring Czech Republic, Hungarian opposition politicians decided to go further, in a certain sense, binding themselves to the model of the American electoral system. The essence of the vote, as it was explained by the participants of the event, was not to disperse the opposition forces, but to gather them into one fist in order to defeat the FIDESZ / KDNP coalition that had already won three times subsequently before the spring of 2022. The outcome of first primaries in history of Hungary is interesting by the fact that in the end, the victory was by a politician of a new generation who took part in this event, but did not bind himself to signing program documents, and who only recently created his own political movement. The question of how consistent his former candidates for the post of prime Minister from the opposition will be in the remaining six months is also interesting. One way or another, Hungary's political system is being tested by a new electoral mechanism, which is designed to consolidate the main political forces of this country. No less interesting in this regard is the line of conduct of the ruling party and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who did not interfere in the new political process taking place in full view of the whole country.