Hungary: Small-town mayor to challenge PM Orban in 2022

Budapest, Oct 18: Conservative provincial Mayor Peter Marki-Zay, an outsider with no party affiliation, will stand against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at next year's election after winning an opposition primary on Sunday.

With roughly 98% of votes counted, Marki-Zay led by more than 13 percentage points, winning over the leftist Democratic Coalition Party's Klara Dobrev.

'We can only win together'

Speaking to cheering supporters, Marki-Zay said, "We can only win together."

"No one can break the unity of the opposition… This was a battle, but we have to win the war as well," he said, referring to the 2022 election.

Dobrev vowed to support Marki-Zay as the head of an alliance of six opposition parties that will attempt to oust Orban after more than a decade in power.

Both are looking to disassemble what they describe as Orban's "illiberal state."

"I wish him a lot of strength ... in our effort to unseat Viktor Orban and then dismantle his regime," Dobrev told reporters on Sunday.

The primary vote was set up by a six-party opposition alliance formed in 2020 to try prevent a mainly first-past-the-post election system that favors Orban and his ruling Fidesz party.

Who is Marki-Zay?

Marki-Zay, a 49-year-old observant Catholic and father of seven, has appealed to both liberal and conservative voters.

He held a wide lead in Budapest, while Dobrev, a lawyer and economist who vyed to be the country's first female prime minister, spearheaded the way in rural areas.

Marki-Zay has degrees in economics, marketing and engineering. He garnered political attention when he won a mayoral contest in 2018 in his southern hometown, Hodmezovasarhely, a Fidesz party stronghold.

Last week, after addressing a large crowd of supporters in the Hungarian capital, he pledged to unite left- and right-wing Hungarians.

The anti-elitist has also campaigned on leading a coalition of "the clean," vowing to stamp out corruption in Hungary.

Marki-Zay said he and Dobrev had agreed ahead of the votes that keeping the opposition united was important for both of them, and promised to collaborate after the run-off.

The two were the final candidates after the first primary round last month that saw more than 600,000 people take part.

Source: DW