The upcoming Hungarian election hinges on the countryside, where economic woes and a charismatic challenger are testing Viktor Orban’s long-standing dominance
PUSZTAVACS: Election posters on electricity poles in this central Hungarian village signal a looming poll where nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s future is on the line.
Small towns and villages, home to half of Hungary’s 9.5 million people, have long been the bastion of his ruling Fidesz party. Analysts say the April 12 election will be decided in the countryside.
The rise of challenger Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party leads in opinion polls, has shaken Orban’s rural hold. This shift is dubbed a rural “political awakening” against economic stagnation and high-profile scandals.
“I’m really worried about which one would be better… I’ll keep racking my brain about it,” Eva Batta, 71, told AFP near a grocery store. She feels the economy has worsened during Orban’s latest term and is “afraid of (the) war” in neighbouring Ukraine.
Orban has campaigned to galvanise such fears, flooding media controlled by his allies with claims the EU and his rival want to drag Hungary into the conflict. Both deny this.
Orban has repeatedly made overtures to rural communities, claiming for his government “the village is not the past, but the future”. Pusztavacs, with 1,300 inhabitants, received state support for renovations and got its first cash machine last year.
Locals like Zsolt Szarnya, a 48-year-old firefighter, are grateful. He felt the village and country stagnated before Orban returned to power in 2010. “Construction has been booming,” he told AFP, crediting family support programmes.
“Orban does not take away, but provides,” said 86-year-old Maria Balogh. She feared Magyar’s party would tax her pension, echoing a pro-Fidesz media claim ruled by courts as groundless and defamatory.
The election will be “100 percent” decided in the countryside, according to analyst Matyas Bodi. He compared Magyar’s goal of “system change” to a “Himalaya expedition”, where urban votes are just the “base camp”.
Sociologist Imre Kovach observed a “political awakening” in the countryside, noting Magyar highlights “conservative and nationalist elements” attractive to rural voters. Magyar’s message of fighting endemic corruption also resonates.
“I had voted for Fidesz before and I regretted it,” said a middle-aged volunteer reserve soldier in Pusztavacs, who declined to give his full name. He added local support for the opposition has “surged”.
Several other residents told AFP they plan to vote for Tisza. Pensioner Laszlo Budavari, 69, said he will vote for Tisza because Magyar “wants to do things differently in this corrupt country”.
He said the “worst thing” was that his three daughters plan to emigrate if Orban wins a fifth term. “Viktor,” Budavari said, feigning to address the prime minister, “my daughters are leaving me here all alone. You guys really screwed this up.”
