Small-town mayor to lead opposition bloc in election
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Independent Peter Marki-Zay won a primary contest to become the joint candidate of a sixparty opposition coalition that will challenge rightwing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary’s elections next spring.
The mayor of the small southern town of Hodmezovasarhely won the second round of the primary over Social Democrat Klara Dobrev, who conceded the race Sunday evening. With roughly 98% of votes counted, Marki-Zay led by more than 13 percentage points in his bid to become the opposition bloc’s candidate for prime minister.
Marki-Zay called his victory “a revolution of the ordinary people,” and encouraged supporters of all opposition parties to get behind him going into elections scheduled for April.
“Viktor Orban doesn’t have to be afraid of me, but of all of you,” he told his supporters.
Marki-Zay now has the pledged support of all of Hungary’s six major opposition parties, which range across the political spectrum from left to moderate to right-wing. The parties have vowed to put aside ideological differences and get behind a single leader in an effort to oust Orban and his governing Fidesz party.
They say such cooperation is the only way to overcome what they contend is an unbalanced media environment and an election system designed by Fidesz that gives it an unfair advantage.
Marki-Zay, a political outsider, entered the primary as an independent without political support or financial backing from any of the six opposition parties.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Marki-Zay said his victory was “very positive news for all Hungarians, because it shows that parties alone are not enough.” He pledged to work with all members of the opposition coalition against Orban’s “corrupt dictatorship.”