On the eve of the legislative elections in Hungary, the polls give a slight advantage to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in power for twelve years.

But the sovereigntist is threatened by an opposition led by the conservative Peter Marki-Zay.

This 49-year-old Catholic conservative was nominated by six opposition parties during a primary, in October 2021, aimed at unbolting Viktor Orban.

And Peter Marki-Zay does not hold back the blows.

"In twelve years, he [Viktor Orban] has lost all his wars: the war against debt, the war against inflation and the war against the Covid with 45,000 dead," Peter Marki-Zay told France 24. . 

He had "campaigned with enthusiasm" for Viktor Orban, before his first term as head of the country.

Before the latter "waste everything" by building "an authoritarian regime".

"Stop Putin"

The fight against corruption and the restoration of the rule of law are among Peter Marki-Zay's priorities.

But since the war in Ukraine has come to the fore, the leader of the opposition has constantly pinpointed the "isolation" of Viktor Orban, seen "as the last ally of (Vladimir) Putin in the within the EU and NATO".

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"He continues to serve Putin's interests and many citizens are fed up. In Hungary, most people don't think we have to say stop to Brussels, we think that to ensure peace, Putin has to be stopped," he added to France 24. 

If elected, he wants to put an end to his country's "undemocratic" drift and bring it back into the "European" camp.

An economist and engineer by training, Peter Marki-Zay worked for five years in marketing in the United States, but also in France and other European countries.

The opposition forms a united front against the risk of fraud

This is the first time that Viktor Orban has faced a united opposition front, a motley coalition that wants to believe in victory. 

Faced with polls that show the opposition losing, Peter Marki-Zay replies that he "never won the opinion polls".

"However, I have never lost an election," he says, bravado.

The polls predict close results but after twelve years of Fidesz in power and a redrawing of constituencies in favor of Viktor Orban's party, the opposition is also worried about the risk of electoral fraud. 

"We have to win in circumstances that are not democratic and it's very unfair. Fraud, we know they exist and we know that he [Viktor Orban] continues to practice them", declared the independent candidate Bernadett Szel, interviewed by France 24. 

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will deploy more than 200 observers in Hungary, an exceptional system for a European Union country. 

With AFP 

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