Fidesz leads by a mile.

A poll published last week by the local think tank Nézõpont Intézet put support among those who plan to vote at 52% for the centre-right opposition party Fidesz and their alliance partners the Christian Democrats (MKDP). Meanwhile backing for the governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) stands at 19% and the nationalist party Jobbik is preferred by 14% of voters.

Fidesz leads by a mile

A poll published last week by the local think tank Nézõpont Intézet put support among those who plan to vote at 52% for the centre-right opposition party Fidesz and their alliance partners the Christian Democrats (MKDP). Meanwhile backing for the governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) stands at 19% and the nationalist party Jobbik is preferred by 14% of voters.
Another research firm, Tárki, put Fidesz-KDNP support at 61% among “decided voters”, with the MSZP on 22% and Jobbik on 11%. The Tárki poll found support for the new green party LMP (Politics Can Be Different) had risen to 3%, putting it ahead of the established Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Alliance of Free Democrats, on 2% and 1% respectively. None of the three parties appears to be close to the 5% support needed in order to enter parliament under Hungary’s complex proportional representation system. Roughly 60% of eligible voters plan to turn out on 11 April, the pollster found - a slight increase over recent findings.

From outsider to ‘third force’

Pollster Forsense, on the other hand, presented encouraging data for the extreme right. In a report issued last Thursday, the firm put support for Jobbik stood at 15% among decided voters, and noted that the party shifted from the fringe to the political mainstream in a little over a year. Of those polled, 41% said they feared Jobbik and its supporters, while 37% saw it as more important that the party has brought a new viewpoint to Hungarian politics. Just under a quarter of Jobbik supporters previously favoured the centre-right party Fidesz, while 12% were disenchanted Socialist voters, the research suggests.

Race for nominations

Socialist party spokeswoman (and election candidate) Bernadett Budai announced last week that her party had secured the necessary 750 nominations for its candidates in all 176 constituencies. The centre-right opposition party Fidesz said it has collected 1.5 million nominations nationwide, and was aiming for 2 million by the deadline of 19 March. The nationalist party Jobbik claimed it had collected at least 750 nominations for its candidates in all but one constituency. The remaining parties - established but waning groups such as the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and newcomer green party LMP (Politics Can Be Different) - last week appeared to be struggling.
LMP candidate László Várnai announced last Thursday that he had collected 950 nominations in his Zugló constituency behind the City Park in Budapest. The candidate at the top of the party’s national list, András Schiffer told reporters that a dozen of the LMP’s candidates had or would soon have enough nominations to stand in the election. ATV reported that the MDF, meanwhile, had given up trying to collect nominations in several districts of Budapest. By last Thursday, only one MDF candidate - János Iván - had collected the required 750 recommendation slips. Nevertheless, the MDF’s prime ministerial candidate Lajos Bokros said the party was making “good progress” and would be able to field candidates nationwide on party lists. Bokros, the MDF’s sole MEP was addressing a meeting of the European Conservatives and Reformists caucus.

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