Won’t Stop until we defeat Orban: Dobrev

Hungarian – Three candidates aiming to remove Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban have cleared the opening round of a countrywide opposition primary contest – the first in the Central European nation’s history.

Closing date Tuesday, the poll gave Hungarians a chance to pick between five opposition candidates to challenge Orban in the elections next April. As per rules, the top three candidates will go on to the second round of voting slated for next week.

Klara Dobrev, 49, vice-president of the European Parliament and the candidate for the liberal Democratic Coalition party, amassed the most votes, with 34%. She was followed by the mayor of Budapest Gergely Karacsony – a center-left – supported by the Hungarian Socialist Party and smaller green parties, with 27%.

After winning the first round of a contest, the 49-year-old lawyer pledged to overturn Viktor Orban as Hungary’s prime minister.

Related Posts

• ‘Legal Polexit’: Brussels, Warsaw ties dip further
• AUKUS & Its impact on Geopolitical relations: not all is glittering gold
• Asia is Strategic, But the United States Wants to Work with Europe
• Biden’s Administration is all set to tour Latin America and counter China’s Belt and Road initiative
• Energy crunch in Europe, What’s Next?
• Europe to hit states that favor human trafficking and Illegal Immigration
• European lawmakers Investigates Facebook after the revelation from whistle blower
• Hungarian PM Orban’s party maintains two-point lead over opposition alliance
• Italy elections: Exit polls point to far right coalition victory, Giorgia Meloni to be PM
• Italy’s 80 year-old president re-elected amid political stalemate
• Italy: Neo-Fascist and Squadron Violence Explodes in Rome
• Mexico: Electricity Reform Bill is Sent to The Congress, says AMLO
• Why Poland Will Need More Time To Go Off Coal

In 2022’s parliamentary elections, Orban will stand against opposition parties, including the liberals, the socialists and those from the center-right. The opinion polls have indicated a tight election, putting opposition parties and Nationalist Fidesz Party neck to neck.

Both Fidesz and Orban stayed in power in the past because the previous election system supported bigger parties. However, interestingly, Karacsony won the 2019 Budapest mayoral elections by defeating the Fidesz candidate. To face Orban for the following year’s election, both Dobrev and Karacsony are strong candidates with 34.8% and 37.3% votes, respectively.

On Tuesday, Dobrev addressed a news conference and told the reporters that she was all set for the second round after her first win. She also pledged to defeat Orban in the elections. On the other hand, Karacsony emphasized establishing a tax system to improve the current political divisions.

The third candidate for the elections is Peter Marki-Zay, a conservative and mayor of a southern Hungarian city. The second round is expected next week, in which these three top candidates will run for elections. It is still not clear whom Marki-Zay will support if he decides to back off the elections.