However, Tisza is sure this time will be different, because he is fielding local star László Gajdos as his main candidate here. Hungarians cast two votes – one for the national party list and the other for their preferred candidate in single-member district constituencies. Out of the 199 seats in the Parliament, 106 are filled by the winners of the district competition, while the remaining 93 seats are divided among the winners of the party lists. And Gajdos, the very famous director of Nyíregyháza Zoo, runs both.
Even pro-Fidesz observers like Mráz Ágoston Sámuel, director of the Nézőpont research consultancy, expect Tisza to win more seats on the national list “because opposition voters are concentrated in the cities, especially in Budapest. From the party list, we estimate Fidesz will get about 40 seats,” he told POLITICO. But the real fight will be in the districts, and Fidesz will still win a majority there, he said.
Tisza disagrees. Péter Lajos Szakács, one of the party’s candidates in Nyíregyháza, told POLITICO he is confident the party will win. “Nyíregyháza, we will win with a bang. I am in the second district and Gajdos is in the first. He will have a historic victory. And I, what I can say is that right now, I am in a tie with my opponent. But we are working hard, so we can send him to retirement, and then he can spend time with his grandchildren,” he said.
But local supporters POLITICO spoke to were not entirely convinced that the electoral struggle in Nyíregyháza was over. “I wouldn’t dare make any predictions,” warned Benji. However, many of them said they thought the election results would be close. And that in itself shows that Fidesz is unlikely to increase the height it did in 2022.
Finally, in the districts outside Budapest, much will depend on whether Fidesz can once again mobilize its supporters and win votes. In the past, the party was very effective in doing so, but in a video of union workers gathered for “hero training” in October, Orbán appeared to be upset about the state of the party’s databases, complaining that they were in bad shape.
However, according to 76-year-old retail store owner Júlia, predictions can be wrong. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Júlia thinks Hungary is in dire need of change: “I don’t want to say who I’m voting for. My main criterion is that my children and grandchildren will stay here. And that they can make a living, and I don’t think that will happen unless things change. Then life will be easier here,” she reflected.
Meanwhile, as political tensions escalate, his business is affected. Gesturing to an empty street in downtown Nyíregyháza, he said: “Everything is very quiet. We can really feel it. People are saving their money. They are afraid of what will happen in the future.”
