In Budapest 1, a parliamentary district at the heart of the Hungarian capital, most voters will not support the party of Viktor Orban, the country’s far-right prime minister, in a general election on April 8. Yet as things stand, Mr. Orban’s party, Fidesz, will hold on to the seat — and its huge majority in Parliament. That speaks as much to the relative strength of Mr. Orban’s base as it does to his gerrymandering and his allies’ takeover of most private news outlets. But it’s also because Hungary’s gaggle of small left-liberal opposition parties, who collectively form a majority in seats like this one, refuse to join forces behind a unity candidate.
This has enraged voters whose frustrations with Mr. Orban outweigh their support for any particular opposition politician.
“It’s just mind-boggling,” said Anna Lengyel, a theater director living in Budapest 1, who does not want her vote to go to waste. The opposition candidates “are standing in front of the mirror and forgetting what the real issue is,” Ms. Lengyel added.
It is a familiar complaint in parliamentary districts, or constituencies, across the country, where a narrow majority of voters want Mr. Orban out of office, but have no single party to rally behind.
Full Article: In Hungary, Disunity and Gerrymandering Frustrate Anti-Orban Voters – The New York Times.