Orban’s Fidesz leads opposition by two points ahead of Hungarian April election

Hungary’s governing Fidesz party gained a two-point lead this month over the united opposition in the campaign for the April 3 election, according to an opinion poll by Zavecz Research published by news site Telex on Monday.

For the first time since taking power in a 2010 landslide win, Prime Minister Viktor Orban will face a united front of opposition parties in parliamentary elections.

The opposition alliance includes the Democratic Coalition, the Socialists, liberals and the formerly far-right, and now centre-right, Jobbik.

The Zavecz institute’s survey put support for the six united opposition parties at 36% of all voters, while Orban’s Fidesz scored 38%, up from 37% measured by the pollster in November. The opposition lost five percentage points since then.

Zavecz said that two fringe parties, the Two-Tailed Dog Party (TTDP) and far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) gained supporters since last year but were still below the 5% threshold for getting into parliament.