A unified bloc of Hungarian opposition parties has selected its leader to face Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s parliamentary elections.
Supporters of Peter Marki-Zay, a conservative mayor and devout Catholic, are hopeful that he can siphon support from Orban. Much of the prime minister’s political dominance over the past 11 years is rooted in his policy, which reflects widely held, socially conservative views. But in his relentless effort to centralize power and isolate alternate viewpoints, the opposition senses that Orban may have overplayed his hand. The opposition was demolished in the last elections in 2018. This time they’re unified. Marki-Zay offers an alternative to conservative swing voters, hence his support from left-wing voters desperate to unseat Orban. It might just work: the latest polls show Orban’s Fidesz–Hungarian Solidarity Alliance running neck and neck with the opposition bloc.
The United States should hope Marki-Zay becomes Hungary’s next leader. Unlike Orban, Marki-Zay is pro-American, pro-NATO, and skeptical of Communist China. Orban’s pro-Americanism begins and ends with rhetoric. The prime minister’s foreign policy record is clear.
Welcoming vast Chinese investments, including an outpost of the Communist Party’s academic infrastructure, Orban has made himself a proud trumpeter for Xi Jinping. The Hungarian strongman is happy to criticize his European Union allies (sometimes fairly, it must be said) but loath to criticize China. Orban sees no genocide of the Uyghurs and apparently has no concerns over China’s seizure of the South China Sea — and associated threats to the lives of U.S. sailors and airmen. As Xi’s friend and ally Angela Merkel leaves office, Orban will be highly valuable in his European Council representation.
A similar tale applies to Orban’s Russia policy. Orban has prevented more robust European efforts to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for his targeting of Czech ammunition depots and his illicit finance networks. Facing the most immediate of Russian threats to the West, Putin’s energy blackmail effort, Orban is a close Putin ally.
It’s rightly up to Hungarian voters who govern them. But for U.S. interests, Marki-Zay is the clear preference.
