Marki-Zay: Election to be decided in individual constituencies

Addressing a press conference in Kiskunfelegyhaza, in southern Hungary, Marki-Zay said it was crucial for the opposition to win the majority of the 106 constituencies.

Citing polling data, he said the opposition had more supporters than ruling Fidesz, insisting that the ruling party was therefore attempting to disintegrate the opposition and their share of the vote in the election.

In his speech, Marki-Zay congratulated the local mayor on his 2019 election win, and assured him and Fidesz’s voters that the opposition would represent them, too, if they won on April 3. No matter what government will be in power after the election, it will support the mayor of Kiskunfelegyhaza, Marki-Zay said, adding that the difference in the case of a change of government would be that the current opposition “wouldn’t expect any form of political loyalty”.

Marki-Zay, who was elected the mayor of Hodmezovasarhely in a by-election in 2018, said the city had before been “a bastion of Fidesz”. The key, he said, to his success four years ago had been that voters “weren’t forced to choose between the smaller and the bigger thieves”.

On April 3, Hungarians will have to choose between two opposing visions for their country when they head to the polls, “not between little and big thieves and not between right and left”, he said. The only question for them will be to choose whether Fidesz should stay or go, whether they want a country descending or “rising up onto the level of Europe”, the prime ministerial candidate added.

Marki-Zay said even those who had emigrated from the country would be willing to return to a “smart and honest Hungary”.