Although there are officially more than 155,000 Hungarians living in the island country, they will still only be able to vote in two places.Continue reading
Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s joint candidate for prime minister, held a campaign event in London to persuade Hungarian voters living in the UK to vote for the opposition alliance. At the event, Márki-Zay outlined that up to three seats could be decided by Hungarians living abroad, and asked those not having a Hungarian address to register their old address ahead of the election.
At the event, the opposition alliance’s candidate for prime minister said that many people had joined forces to ensure that Hungary “will not become the most miserable country in Europe.”
Márki-Zay underscored how important the votes of Hungarians living abroad will be in the upcoming parliamentary elections in April. He urged all those living outside of Hungary to cast their votes.
During the discussion, the PM candidate repeatedly emphasized that the Hungarian diaspora in the UK could tip the balance in the 2022 general election.
Márki-Zay asked Hungarians without a home address in Hungary to register to their old address because the last parliamentary election showed that up to three seats could depend on the votes of those living outside the country.
The politician added that “the 2018 elections already showed that if it were up to the Hungarians living in the UK, governing Fidesz would not even make it into parliament.”
At the time of his UK visit, Márki-Zay also made several posts on his social media page about the Hungarians who decided to leave Hungary and live abroad.
According to one of his posts:
“Among Hungarians in London, those who want a change of government are in an overwhelming majority. In a place where the freedom of information is guaranteed, where there is personal experience of the West demonized by Fidesz, where there is no lying propaganda flooding in 24/7, people know that the most corrupt government of Hungary’s history has to go.”
In another post, he wrote about why he thinks many people have moved abroad:
“People leave Hungary for the West for two reasons. One, is that they are tired of an environment of a constant civil war, the hatred on a daily basis, the lack of legal security. They don’t want to live in this toxic environment, and they especially don’t want their children to grow up in it.
“The other most important reason why hundreds of thousands of people have left the country is that they cannot get by, they cannot get ahead with an honest job. While a small privileged class is getting rich off our work, from the EU subsidies we receive and from the distribution of state wealth, the average Hungarian earns less than not only his or her Western counterparts, but also Polish, Slovakian, and Romanian workers,” Mákri-Zay said.
Hungarian voters in the United Kingdom are yet again expected to have to wait in long queues to cast their ballots this year. According to current rules, the more than 155,000 Hungarians living in the UK can only cast their votes at three embassies: in London, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Voters can register to vote at the embassies from January 27th. During the election, foreign ballot boxes will be sealed on the spot and the votes will only be counted after they arrive in Hungary.
Featured photo via Péter Márki-Zay’s official Twitter page