Hungarian Opposition May Struggle to Unify Voters, Poll Shows

(Bloomberg) -- The majority of Hungarian opposition voters wouldn’t vote outside their own political camp, even if that was needed to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party in the April 8 election, a survey by the Index news website and polling company Zavecz Research showed Tuesday.

Forces opposing Orban’s poll-leading Fidesz party, galvanized by a municipal by-election victory last month, need to overcome divisions within their ranks to oust the premier. They include Jobbik, a radical nationalist group that’s been moving toward the political center and a collection of leftist, liberal and green parties that have a history of bickering among themselves and have traditionally avoided alliances with Jobbik.

Among Jobbik voters, fewer than 20 percent would vote for a "left-wing" candidate. Conversely, about a quarter of other opposition voters would be willing to vote for a Jobbik nominee as a way of uniting the anti-Fidesz vote, the poll showed.

On a nationwide level, Fidesz has led all opinion polls, with Jobbik second. The Index-Zavecz survey, which didn’t provide figures on party popularity, was carried out on a "national representative sample" in February, before the Fidesz by-election defeat in Hodmezovasarhely. No margin of error was given.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Balazs Penz, Andrea Dudik

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