Opposition Chooses Top Candidate for 2022 Elections

Péter Márki-Zay has won the opposition primary election for prime minister, the state news agency MTI quotes the Sunday evening announcement from the official Facebook page of the primaries.

Márky-Zay, the mayor of the southeastern Hungarian town of Hódmezővásárhely, President of the All Hungary Movement received 371,560 (56.71%) votes, while his opponent, Klára Dobrev, Member of the European Parliament for the Democratic Coalition (DK) party, received 283,677 (43.29%).

In the second round to decide who will lead the unified opposition against the currently ruling Fidesz party in the parliamentary elections expected to be held in the spring of 2022, 662,353 people participated in person or online, of whom 655,237 cast valid votes.

Six opposition parties (DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, MSZP and Párbeszéd) had decided to run jointly in the 2022 parliamentary elections, with the joint opposition candidate for prime minister and individual MPs being elected in a primary election. The first round of the primaries was held between September18 and 28, while the second round, in which voters could only decide between the two remaining candidates for prime minister, was held between October10 and 16.    

In the first round of the primaries, 633,811 people cast their votes in person or online. In the first round, the highest number of votes was still cast for Klára Dobrev, with DK's candidate winning 34.76% of the vote with 214,319 votes. Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony, the candidate of MSZP, Párbeszéd and LMP, came second with 168,396 votes (27.31%), while Péter Márki-Zay came third with 123,453 votes (20.02%). In the second round, only two candidates took part, as the mayor withdrew.