Viktor Orbán has said that he believes a two-party system to be desirable, though the presidents of the Socialist and Free Democrat parties have both said that they would not like a two-party system.
But if the 2006 elections did indeed return only two parties to parliament, then this would mean both the end of the Free Democrats and the fall of the current coalition. A two-party system could be brought about by the interplay of three key factors:
- The electoral system. Under the Hungarian electoral system, each voter has two votes. A voter can vote for a constituency MP and for a party list. An electoral system based exclusively on party lists would lead to fully proportional representation;
- An artificially maintained “if not us then it’s the end” psychosis, a “life and death struggle” with the opposing party, which helps to mobilise as many voters as possible;
- The lack of a well thought out system for party and especially campaign finance. Nowadays in Hungary, the large parties are officially allowed to spend Ft386m on their campaigns, though each party in reality spends closer to Ft8-10bn.
Péter Hack: A two-party system
Utolsó frissítés:
It is not a question of whether there will be a two-party system, but of when it will happen. All the factors driving political life are pointing in the same direction.