HUNGARIAN prime minister Viktor Orban and his right-wing nationalist party are expected to win a third consecutive term in power following national elections.
Polls agree on the triumph of Orban’s Fidesz party and its allied Christian Democrats, but a splintered opposition and Hungary’s complex electoral system make the margin of victory hard to predict.
Opposition parties want to ensure Orban’s bloc does not sweep to a super-majority which could allow the autocratic leader to push through constitutional changes.
He has campaigned heavily on unyielding anti-migration policies, although voters say they are more concerned with poverty, government corruption and the country’s underfunded health care system.
Orban claims the opposition – collaborating with the United Nations, the EU and wealthy philanthropist George Soros – wants to turn Hungary into an “immigrant country”, threatening its security and Christian identity.
Gabor Vona, of the nationalist Jobbik party, said the question is not about migration but the large number of Hungarians leaving the country and heading to western Europe in search of higher wages and better prospects.
He said that the election “will decide whether Hungary becomes an emigrant country or not – and I wouldn’t like Hungary to be an emigrant country”.
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