How Viktor Orban’s Populism May Face Backlash in Budapest

Hungary’s opposition parties are banding together for the first time in local elections in a bid to push back against the power of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose party has won seven back-to-back nationwide contests. A strong showing on Oct. 13, particularly in the capital Budapest, could give the opposition momentum for the 2022 parliamentary election. Failure to reclaim some big cities would point to a likely fifth term for the standard-bearer of European right-wing populists.

Orban returned to power in 2010 after an earlier four-year stint and proceeded to build a regime that concentrated power to a degree unprecedented in the European Union. That prompted the bloc to launch a probe over Hungary’s erosion of the rule of law. Orban’s avowedly “illiberal” politics meld nationalism, cultural conservatism and a powerful central government. His Fidesz party’s near total control of town halls across Hungary has been crucial to increasing its influence and preventing cash-strapped challengers from mounting serious challenges in the past decade.