The central issue of next year’s European Parliamentary elections will be the parties’ and candidates’ stance on the issue of illegal immigration, Erik Tóth, analyst at think-tank Nézőpont Intézet said.
European parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 2019 and following the April 2018 Hungarian general elections will be the next major election in the country. It is also possible that Hungary will also bring forward the municipal elections customarily held in the autumn to coincide with the EU elections.
Tóth said the migration issue has created an entirely new political landscape in Europe. Whereby previously domestic affairs also dominated the agenda of the EU elections, “this time there is a Pan-European issue on the table”.
It is also clear that parties, political formations and individual politicians who do not tackle the issue of migration or propose “wrong solutions” have experienced a sharp decline in popularity.
Tóth said that his institute’s forecast expected a “strong increase in People’s Party dynamics” and poorer Socialist-Social Democrat showing while it was also likely that the governing Hungarian Fidesz party will increase the number of its representatives in the European Parliament.
Currently Fidesz has 11 MEPs out of Hungary’s total of 21.
