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Jobbik increases its support

March 19th, 2015

Commentators both on Left and Right believe that the campaign by media mogul Lajos Simicska against Fidesz has helped Jobbik to increase its popularity.

According to the latest opinion poll published by the Ipsos polling company, Fidesz has 21 per cent support in the total population, the same as in February. Jobbik stands at 18 per cent, followed by MSZP (12 per cent), Democratic Coalition (7 per cent) and LMP (4 per cent). According to the poll, Fidesz has 1.7 million voters while Jobbik has 1.5 million.

Népszabadság in a front page editorial contends that Lajos Simicska’s campaign against the government has not weakened Fidesz, but has helped Jobbik to gain support. The far-right party is becoming more attractive to voters dissatisfied with the social policies of Fidesz, Népszabadság writes. Jobbik has toned down its radical messages and now thrives because it can woo right-wing voters through promising more welfare, Népszabadság concludes.

Jobbik can easily increase its popularity by blaming all ills on mainstream parties which have dominated the past 25 years, Bálint Ablonczy writes in Heti Válasz. The conservative commentator maintains that as the Left is preoccupied with its internal battles and Fidesz is stuck in a media war, Jobbik can successfully rebrand itself as a moderate party, despite its occasionally Nazi slant and anti-Semitic stunts.

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