{"id":696810,"date":"2026-01-15T03:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/696810\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:46:11","slug":"5-key-questions-about-the-eus-most-important-election-of-2026-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/696810\/","title":{"rendered":"5 key questions about the EU\u2019s most important election of 2026 \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cState propaganda smears, AI-generated fakes, doctored videos, potential staged incidents, blackmail, and exploiting the rigged electoral system. They will mobilize everything because they have so much to lose,\u201d Tarr said.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at <a href=\"https:\/\/miniszterelnok.hu\/en\/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-congress-of-the-fidesz-hungarian-civic-alliance\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/miniszterelnok.hu\/en\/speech-by-prime-minister-viktor-orban-at-the-31st-congress-of-the-fidesz-hungarian-civic-alliance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fidesz\u2019s party congress<\/a> on Saturday, Orb\u00e1n lambasted Tisza as a pro-EU stooge. <br \/><strong><br \/><\/strong>\u201cIf you vote for Tisza or DK [the social-democratic Democratic Coalition], you are voting against your own future. Tisza and DK will carry out Brussels\u2019 demands without batting an eyelid. Do not forget that Tisza\u2019s boss is Herr Weber, Europe\u2019s biggest warmonger,\u201d Orb\u00e1n said, referring to the German chief of the European People\u2019s Party, Manfred Weber.<\/p>\n<p>3. How and when does the election take place?<\/p>\n<p>The national elections will take place on Sunday, April 12. Voters will choose a new 199-seat National Assembly under Hungary\u2019s mixed electoral system, with 106 MPs elected in single-member constituencies and 93 from national party lists.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13623529-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7765080\"  \/>The long-suffering opposition hopes that P\u00e9ter Magyar \u2014 conservative leader of the Tisza party \u2014 can overturn what Orb\u00e1n himself styles as Hungary\u2019s \u201cilliberal democracy.\u201d | No\u00e9mi Bruz\u00e1k\/EPA<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/europe-poll-of-polls\/hungary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">POLITICO\u2019s Poll of Polls shows<\/a> Tisza leading with 49 percent support ahead of Fidesz at 37 percent \u2014 with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party having been trailing for almost a year now.<\/p>\n<p>Although the official campaign period begins Feb. 21, the race has effectively been in full swing for months.<\/p>\n<p>Other notable parties in the race are the Democratic Coalition (DK); the far-right Mi Haz\u00e1nk (Our Homeland) movement; and the satirical Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party (MKKP), largely created to mock Orb\u00e1n\u2019s policies. But these are fighting for survival as they may not meet the threshold of support for winning seats in parliament \u2014 meaning the Hungarian legislature could be exclusively controlled by two right-wing parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cState propaganda smears, AI-generated fakes, doctored videos, potential staged incidents, blackmail, and exploiting the rigged electoral system. They&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11576,28284,2000,299,5187,210057,41727,2190,30995,11854,7338,41048,1781],"class_list":{"0":"post-696810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-brussels-bubble","9":"tag-elections-in-europe","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-hungarian-elections-2026","14":"tag-hungarian-politics","15":"tag-hungary","16":"tag-manfred-weber","17":"tag-peter-magyar","18":"tag-rule-of-law","19":"tag-valerie-hayer","20":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115897066104266571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}