Three candidates advance in Hungary’s first national primary

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Three candidates aiming to unseat Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban in elections next spring have cleared the first round of a countrywide opposition primary contest that is the first in the Central European nation’s history. The poll saw Klara Dobrev, the candidate for the liberal Democratic Coalition party and a vice-president of the European Parliament, win the most votes. She was followed by Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony and conservative independent Peter Marki-Zay. The three candidates, all part of a six-party opposition coalition looking to defeat Orban’s Fidesz party, will go on to the primary’s second round set to begin next week. If she defeats Orban in elections in April, Dobrev would be the first female prime minister in Hungary’s history.