Putin links squeeze Orban's lead in Hungary vote

STORY: Viktor Orban's dream of an unbroken two-decade spell ruling Hungary hangs in the balance in Sunday's (April 3) election, with his close relations with Vladimir Putin under the spotlight.

Polls suggest six opposition parties - united against him for the first time - are within striking distance of unseating his nationalist Fidesz party. He now acknowledges the election won't be a walkover.

Orban responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine by posing on billboards as the Hungarian people's protector.

He accuses opposition politicians of trying to drag Hungary into the war, a charge they have denied.

Earlier this month, he told supporters the Ukraine crisis had raised the election stakes "to the sky", with a choice between, quote, "the pro-peace Right or the pro-war Left. Construction or destruction."

Tibor Zavecz, who heads the Zavecz Research think-tank, said foreign policy has shot up the agenda.

"The nature of the campaign is totally different. I am not saying that local problems in constituencies have disappeared but national politics, and the relationship to the war, the aggression, with Putin, with the decisions of the EU and NATO have become more important than local issues."

Opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay has seized the opportunity, telling voters they face a choice between the West and the East, criticizing Orban's closeness to Putin and what he said is an erosion of democratic rights.

Fidesz swept elections in 2018 on a fierce anti-immigration campaign that earned Orban praise from former U.S. President Donald Trump and Europe's far right, and set him on a collision course with Brussels.

Orban has transformed Hungary into a self-styled "illiberal democracy" with a firm grip over media and loyalists in charge of top institutions.

Opinion polls still give Fidesz a narrow lead to win a fourth term. But with about a fifth of Hungary's 8 million voters still undecided, Sunday's vote could go either way.