According to politics.hu, the Hungarian Socialist Party is committed to forging a broad pre-electoral alliance in order to defeat the ruling Fidesz in the 2014 general elections.
The Socialists committed themselves to entering joint lists for the election last November. A week ago, however, E14-PM ((ex-PM Gordon Bajnai’s faction.)) raised the idea of coordinating whom to nominate in individual constituencies but fielding separate lists.
The Socialist board confirmed, however, that setting up a common list would offer the biggest chance for a change in government.
This is a reminder that the Hungarian electoral system is not MMP. Since the first post-Communist election of 1990, it has been a fundamentally majoritarian mixed-member system. It became even more so with recent reforms.
What the Hungarian Socialists are planning on doing is the same thing the old Concertación is doing in Chile, creating a new electoral alliance called New Majority, including the Communists for example.
Assuming they do go on to present a united front, what are their chances of unseating Fidez (however it is spelled)? I was under the impression that Fidez doesn’t have much chance of losing its majority.
I can’t answer the question of how popular Fidesz is, but they won only 53% of the vote in 2010. The Socialists had only 19% (list vote). So a unified opposition could stand a chance–assuming there is discontent with the current government’s authoritarian bent.
Of course, the Socialists aren’t going to form a front with Jobbik, which won 17%.
(And, it is Fidesz. Without the z, the Hungarian pronunciation would be “Fidesh”, which sometimes is how it is pronounced by Western news media. But the final sound is just an ‘s’.)