In Vecsés, south of Budapest, gray rainwater has collected in potholes. Levente Sándor has come straight from Péter Magyar's election rally; the blue-and-white Tisza sign is frayed at the edges and in his phone's gallery there is a freshly taken selfie with the opposition leader. The 30-year-old is excited - "just about everything" is at stake as Hungary now goes to the polls.
This is the last chance. I see a very dark, medieval future if Orbán wins again. The whole relationship with Europe - with the EU - would change.
For Levente Sándor, who previously voted for the ruling Fidesz party, everything changed after a series of scandals linked to corruption and abuse of power within the government. Therefore, the choice fell on Péter Magyar and the opposition Tisza party, which promised to fight corruption and raise living standards.
With all these stolen billions, we can improve healthcare and raise wages. Today, half of Hungary is owned by Orbán's inner circle, says Levente Sándor, indignantly mentioning the Orbán family's huge estate, Hatvanpuszta.
Have you seen that he has zebras there? Zebras!
“Beloved dictator”
György Szabó has passed 70 and no longer shares Levente Sándor's hopes for the future. As an old politician - in the 1980s an advisor to Hungary's last communist prime minister Miklós Németh - he votes for Tisza only to show Europe "that not all Hungarians are idiots".
Orbán - our beloved dictator - has arranged so that even without him he will rule the country, he says.
He has abused the system he created to the extreme, to the point that any government is doomed to fail due to the economic situation.
Szabó and his daughter are on their way to a cinema on the Buda side of the Hungarian capital, where they are going to see a documentary about Péter Magyar. Russia-ally Orbán has “completely brainwashed” the Hungarian people, he says.
We are not talking about an ordinary election, which most Hungarians do not seem to understand. We are talking once again about a choice between East and West. If the East wins, our fate for the next 15–20 years is sealed.
The economy "to hell"
Budapest resident Anna Kiffer, who studies communications, is worried about election fraud.
"I'm so nervous. I really hope Péter Magyar wins," says the 20-year-old.
Her boyfriend Martin Csomai shakes his head in despair. The election campaign, rife with smear campaigns, disinformation and accusations of Russian interference, has left him disillusioned. But Fidesz voters don't seem to care, he says.
Every day there is a new scandal. But they turn a blind eye to everything.
In a playground in the Lehel tér district, 40-year-old Katinka is swinging her eldest daughter. The cherry trees have burst into bloom and the youngest, two months old, is sleeping in the stroller. Katinka will vote for Tisza, but not because she is a big fan of Magyar. Just to get rid of Orbán and the “hatred” he has created in society.
"The economy has been going to hell for probably ten years now. A lot of people are having a hard time. Having children is very, very difficult financially," says Katinka, whose husband is American.
We always joke that we gave our children the two worst nationalities.
Hungary will hold parliamentary elections on April 12.
Of the 199 seats, 106 are elected via single-member constituencies and 93 via national party lists. Special rules apply to make it easier for 13 specific national minorities (of which Roma, Germans and Slovaks are the most numerous) to win individual seats.
The election is expected to be a duel between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's long-standing ruling party Fidesz, which in alliance with the Christian Democratic Party of Hungary (KDNP) currently has 153 seats, and the opposition party Tisza, led by Fidesz defector Péter Magyar.
