(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – There is no question people in Hungary are disenchanted with the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), according to a poll by Median. Only 18 per cent of respondents—all of them decided voters—would support the Socialists in the next legislative ballot, unchanged since September.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – There is no question people in Hungary are disenchanted with the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), according to a poll by Median. Only 18 per cent of respondents—all of them decided voters—would support the Socialists in the next legislative ballot, unchanged since September.
The opposition Hungarian Citizens Party (Fidesz) is the clear favourite with 65 per cent. The Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) is in third place with 12 per cent, followed by the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) with two per cent, Politics Can Be Different (LMP) with one per cent, and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) also with one per cent.
Hungarian voters renewed their National Assembly in April 2006. The MSZP and the SZDSZ secured 210 of the legislative branch’s 386 seats, securing a full term for Socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. Fidesz, led by Viktor Orban, elected 164 lawmakers. In June 2006, Gyurcsany introduced a fiscal "austerity package" of state subsidy reductions and tax increases, aimed at lowering the country’s fiscal deficit.
In September 2006, Gyurcsany was criticized after Hungary’s state radio aired portions of an audiotape—which had been recorded in May—in which he told members of the MSZP that his administration "lied throughout the past one and a half or two years" about the state of the country’s economy in order to win re-election. The prime minister’s words sparked a two-week riot that threatened to end his government.
In March 2008, Gyurcsany stepped down as prime minister, as he faced mounting criticism over his handling of the economy. The MSZP picked finance minister Gordon Bajnai to be the next head of government. In April, Bajnai and the cabinet survived a no-confidence motion in a 199-169 vote.
In June, Fidesz won 14 of 22 seats in the election to the European Parliament.
On Oct. 7, Socialist leader Ildiko Lendvai said that the party’s unpopular economic decisions in the past 18 months should not overshadow their contribution to the country’s development in the past two decades, declaring, "We must not deny the past twenty years, the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, Hungary’s [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] NATO and European Union entry, all the roads and houses the country has built."
The next election in Hungary should take place in the spring of 2010.
Polling Data
If an election were held today, what party would you support? (Decided Voters)
|
|
Oct. 2009 |
Sept. 2009 |
|
Hungarian Citizens Party (Fidesz) |
65% |
67% |
|
Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) |
18% |
18% |
|
Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) |
12% |
10% |
|
Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) |
2% |
1% |
|
Politics Can Be Different (LMP) |
1% |
1% |
|
Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) |
1% |
1% |
Source: Median
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Hungarian adults, conducted from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6, 2009. Margin of error is 3 per cent.
