The ruling Fidesz centre-right government has maintained its popularity over its first one hundred days in office, which has seen a flurry of activity and no obvious bungles, political analysts polled by MTI said.
Satisfaction with the new centre-right Fidesz government is partly down to symbolic measures it has enacted in the face of a weak opposition, said Zoltan Novak of the Meltanyossag Political Analyst Centre.
Its signature policies such as a new banking levy and laws easing access to Hungarian citizenship for ethnic kin have also been widely appreciated, he said.
At the same time, however, it has enacted several controversial laws and appointments, said Novak, noting the new media law, which concentrates power in the hands of an official personally appointed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban for a nine-year period, and a decree requiring public institutions to display a text on national cohesion.
But in the face of a weak and divided opposition, voters do not see any clear alternatives, he added.
Agoston Samuel Mraz of the Nezopont Institute said the government had not done anything to break its firm backing by society.
“First, the government has not made any obvious or note-worthy mistakes in its communication. Second, after the election, it did not go back on its early promises or change its message and so the electorate does not feel cheated. Third, no segment of society has had its interests harmed and none has been burdened by administrative or financially restrictive measures,” Mraz said.
He added that the opposition parties have failed to carve out their identities. The Socialists have been consumed by internal conflicts and have failed to restore their credibility, while the radical nationalist Jobbik party has been torn between radicalism and extremism, he said. Entrant green party Politics Can Be Different (LMP) still cannot decide whether it is a leftist-liberal party or something else, Mraz added.
He noted that the Fidesz-led alliance, which commands a two-thirds majority in parliament, had introduced a new subsidy programme called the New Szechenyi Plan, bolstered the agencies of law and order and brought in measures which are perceived by voters in their day-to-day lives as cutting down on needless red tape.
Novak said the symbolism surrounding Viktor Orban’s national cohesion policy and the government’s dynamism are likely to endure in the electorate’s memory.
Orban will give a formal assessment of the first one hundred days in office on Tuesday.
