Small-town mayor to lead Hungary opposition bloc in election

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Independent conservative Peter Marki-Zay has won a primary contest to become the joint canddate of a six-party opposition coalition that will challenge right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary’s elections next spring. Marki-Zay called his victory Sunday “a revolution of the ordinary people,” and encouraged supporters of all opposition parties to get behind him going into elections scheduled for April. Hungary’s six major opposition parties have agreed to put aside ideological differences and get behind a single candidate for prime minister in an effort to oust Orban and his governing Fidesz party. Marki-Zay is a conservative political outsider and small-town mayor who says he can mobilize voters from across the political spectrum.