Jobbik moves to the centre
August 4th, 2017A prominent political analyst believes that by moving away from its extreme positions, Jobbik has opened up the possibility that Fidesz might lose its parliamentary majority as early as next year’s election.
In Magyar Narancs, political scientist, Gábor Török who is widely believed to be an unofficial advisor to Jobbik leader Gábor Vona, argues that Fidesz might lose its absolute majority in Parliament as a result of the political shift underway in Jobbik for the past three years. As a few by-elections have shown, even without actual electoral alliances, voters dissatisfied with the government are ready to vote for the opposition candidate who has the biggest chance of winning. With 40 per cent of the votes, Fidesz could easily win a large majority in Parliament, as long as sympathisers of Jobbik and left-wing parties find it impossible to vote for each other’s candidates. Thus Fidesz only lost 10 individual constituencies out of 106 in 2014. But with left-wing and Jobbik candidates becoming less unacceptable for their respective electorates, it could lose 40 next year. In that case, it would fall just under the required 100 seats in the 199 strong Parliament, Török thinks.