Hungary‘s far-right Our Homeland party could emerge as a crucial kingmaker following the general election on 12 April, as two recent opinion polls suggest it is the only smaller party likely to secure enough votes to enter parliament.
This comes amidst a tight contest where nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban seeks to extend his 16-year tenure, but his Fidesz party trails the centre-right Tisza party, led by former government insider Peter Magyar, in independent surveys.
Polls conducted by 21 Research Centre and Zavecz Research indicate that Our Homeland (Mi Hazank) is the sole party, apart from Tisza and Fidesz, with a realistic chance of surpassing the 5 per cent threshold required for parliamentary representation.
The 21 Research Centre placed support for Our Homeland at 5 per cent among decided voters, while Zavecz recorded it at 4 per cent.
The party, which secured 6.7 per cent in the 2024 European Parliament election, is aligned with the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations group, which includes Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland.
Our Homeland campaigns on a platform advocating against the European Union, migration, and vaccination, while also pledging to combat corruption and crime.
Laszlo Toroczkai, the 48-year-old leader of Our Homeland, rejects being categorized as far-right and says he considers his party “sovereignist”, as opposed to globalist forces.
Our Homeland attracts openly antisemitic and anti-Roma voters and should certainly be seen as a far-right party, said Robert Laszlo, an election expert at think tank Political Capital, though he said they were a minority in the party.
He said Our Homeland had also attracted moderate voters through conspiracy theories related to vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It also represents ordinary people in rural areas who feel that none of the larger parties represents them,” he told Reuters.
Toroczkai has ruled out joining a coalition with Fidesz or Tisza, telling Reuters during a campaign event: “My goal is that Mi Hazank gets in a position where neither Fidesz nor Tisza…has absolute power.”
But political analysts have suggested Our Homeland might support a minority Fidesz government informally from the opposition if required for Orban to be able to govern.