It's a relatively free election, there's a strong incumbent bias that undoubtedly helps him win but there's no evidence the entire thing is rigged. Dictators can be popular, the best example is Napoleon.
Each opposition party gets 5 minutes per 4 year election cycle by the state controlled media (and a lot of other media was bought from stolen EU money).
I dare you to watch 5 minutes of news on the government media channel (the only channels that can be accessed in the free TV tear, that poor people are able to watch) and say that it's not rigged.
If Napoleon, who ruled hundreds of years ago is the best example you know, there must be something in not allowing any person to stay for 16 years in power (especially because he just had 9 years)
> I dare you to watch 5 minutes of news on the government media channel (the only channels that can be accessed in the free TV tear, that poor people are able to watch) and say that it's not rigged.
All your saying can be described as a "strong incumbent bias that undoubtedly helps him win." International poll watchers agree, the elections themselves are fair but the blurred separation of party and state leads to an undue advantage. 2014, but I don't see evidence of the situation having changed. http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/hungary/121098?download=...
Maybe I should have said "fully rigged." Real opposition candidates do get to run, they just have almost no shot of victory. And it's possible that if they did have a shot, the elections would be outright rigged.
Napoleon was my example of a popular dictator, I didn't want to use other examples as people will debate whether they're dictators. I never said that's a good thing, Napoleon was horrible despite remaining popular in France.
The government made extra payments to their typical supporters like pensioners and rural areas. Economically strong regions and younger professionals pay the bill and are free to vote against, but they remain a minority.
Yes, but the question was about Hungary, not the UK.
Though since there's no election for a while and they don't apparently get elected based on promises delivered, just promised made, they haven't shied away from breaking the pensioner-bait promises anyway for this year and removing the triple lock (pensions rise at least as fast as the largest of inflation, earnings or 2.5%).
