\n At home, however, many are tired of the system<\/a> Orb\u00e1n has built. The opposition Tisza party, led by P\u00e9ter Magyar, has campaigned relentlessly against corruption and Hungary\u2019s economic stagnation. Meanwhile, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party \u2013 backed by the United States and Russia \u2013 has focused mostly on perceived external threats to Hungary, such as those that the party says are posed by neighboring Ukraine and the European Union.\n <\/p>\n \n Tisza has held a double-digit lead over Fidesz in most polls for more than a year. But analysts say Hungary\u2019s heavily gerrymandered electoral system means the result of the parliamentary vote could be tight.\n <\/p>\n \n Polls open Sunday morning and will close at 7 p.m. local time. Here\u2019s what to know.\n <\/p>\n \n Magyar, 45, is widely seen as the most formidable opponent 62-year-old Orb\u00e1n has faced since returning to power in 2010, having served his first term at the turn of the century. A former insider of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party, Magyar split with the party in 2024 in a high-profile rupture.\n <\/p>\n \n Earlier that year, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government was rocked by public furor over the decision by Hungary\u2019s president, Katalin Nov\u00e1k, to pardon the deputy director of a children\u2019s home who had helped cover up the abuse of underaged boys. Judit Varga, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s justice minister at the time, was also involved in the pardon. Both women resigned<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Varga had previously been married to Magyar. In an explosive interview with Partizan<\/a>, a Hungarian media outlet, Magyar accused Orb\u00e1n of \u201chiding behind women\u2019s skirts.\u201d He also used the interview to share secrets he had gleaned from his proximity to government. \u201cA few families own half the country,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Corruption has been the major theme of his election campaign. Magyar has visited scores of towns and cities, drawing huge crowds, even deep in traditional Fidesz territory. Tisza\u2019s support skews toward the urban and the young: There is a generation of Hungarians who have grown up knowing nothing but Orb\u00e1n. \u201cFidesz, get lost!\u201d has been a common chant on the streets of Budapest this week.\n <\/p>\n \n Magyar\u2019s campaign has been rigidly domestic. Tisza has stayed clear of international media, lest it be accused by Fidesz of colluding with foreign agents. Magyar has focused almost entirely on kitchen-table issues, such as Hungary\u2019s stalling economy and poor healthcare, and spoken little about foreign policy or the EU. He has said next to nothing about Ukraine to avoid being painted as the sort of liberal European politician that Orb\u00e1n has vilified for years.\n <\/p>\n \n This discipline has denied Orb\u00e1n obvious lines of attack against Magyar. Instead, according to Magyar, Fidesz was planning to blackmail him by releasing a video of him \u201cin an intimate moment with my then-girlfriend,\u201d which it had secretly recorded.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cYes, I\u2019m a 45-year-old man; I have a sex life. With an adult partner,\u201d he said<\/a> in February. \u201cDear Fidesz cowards, go ahead and bring out everything.\u201d So far that sexual kompromat, if it exists, has not been made public.\n <\/p>\n \n Hungarian is a difficult language \u2013 nationalists joke it is the language of heaven because it takes an eternity to learn. But even foreign ears have become familiar with a word that has resounded through Orb\u00e1n\u2019s campaign: \u201ch\u00e1rbor\u00fa\u201d \u2013 \u201cwar.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cH\u00e1rbor\u00fa\u201d features in rallies, on billboards, in adverts online. At a final rally in Sz\u00e9kesfeh\u00e9rv\u00e1r near Budapest Friday, Orb\u00e1n repeated his claim that he had kept Hungarians out of war, and pledged not to give Ukraine \u201cour children, weapons or freedom.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Hungary\u2019s towns and cities are speckled with posters showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, often alongside Magyar. Some read: \u201cDanger!\u201d Others say: \u201cDon\u2019t let him have the last laugh\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s stop them!\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Orb\u00e1n\u2019s opponents say much of his electoral success has relied on finding alleged enemies: first, NGOs, then liberal universities, then migrants, then the LGBTQ movement<\/a> \u2013 and now, Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n \n Last weekend, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s allies claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine had placed two backpacks containing explosives<\/a> by a natural gas pipeline near Hungary\u2019s border. In February, Orb\u00e1n sent Hungarian soldiers to guard the country\u2019s energy infrastructure, saying the move was aimed at preventing a Ukrainian attack.\n <\/p>\n \n In its election campaign, Fidesz has used a video generated by artificial intelligence showing Magyar storming into a Hungarian home to conscript a young man. Another AI-generated video depicts a little girl asking about her father \u2013 who is then seen kneeling in the mud, before being executed. \u201cThis is only a nightmare for now, but Brussels is preparing to make it reality,\u201d the video says. \u201cFidesz is the only safe choice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Critics have noted the irony of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s line of attack against Ukraine. He emerged on Hungary\u2019s political scene in the late 1980s as a liberal anti-communist, demanding<\/a> the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. Now, given Orb\u00e1n\u2019s friendliness with Russia and his demonizing of Ukraine, \u201cRussians, go home!\u201d has become a common anti-Fidesz chant among Tisza supporters.\n <\/p>\n \n The United States is unusually invested in Hungary\u2019s election because the Trump administration wants the Orb\u00e1n-style mode of government to succeed in Europe. The administration\u2019s National Security Strategy<\/a>, published last year, detailed how it would push for a more \u201clike-minded\u201d Europe \u2013 that is, anti-woke, anti-green, anti-immigrant.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis American administration believes that there is a Trumpian revolution, and that this Trumpian revolution is coming to Europe, and that Europe is just one electoral cycle behind the United States,\u201d Ivan Krastev, chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n For that reason, the United States has spent significant diplomatic capital pushing for Orb\u00e1n\u2019s re-election. Vice President JD Vance spent two days in Budapest this week, pledging to help Orb\u00e1n \u201cas much as I possibly can.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said on social media Friday that his administration \u201cstands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States to strengthen Hungary\u2019s Economy, as we have done for our Great Allies in the past, if Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n and the Hungarian People ever need it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Orb\u00e1n has long played a disruptive role in the EU, obstructing efforts to fund Ukraine\u2019s defense against Russia. For months, Orb\u00e1n has used Hungary\u2019s membership of the bloc to veto a \u20ac90 billion ($105 billion) EU loan for Ukraine, citing a dispute with Kyiv over a damaged pipeline that transports Russian oil to Hungary.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody in Brussels, bar one or two proxy allies in Czechia and Slovakia, would be sorry to see the back of Orb\u00e1n,\u201d said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy.\n <\/p>\n ![\"Hungarians](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-10t193344z-128691453-rc2jmkaki6f0-rtrmadp-3-hungary-election-opposition-concert.JPG\")
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