The two teams are now elbowtoelbow in the polls

Huge posters lining the walls of Budapest could mislead. The Hungarians, elect Sunday, their members and not their Chairman. Election signs which have invaded the city and its surroundings are almost all portraits of two men: the outgoing Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and Viktor Orban, the leader of the conservative opposition. Two quitting that completely overshadowed, in recent weeks, the thousand of candidates in the race for the 386 seats in Parliament.

"The campaign for legislative elections has never been as custom in Hungary," said political analyst Krisztian Szabados." The population will vote for one or other of these two personalities, not for programs or ideologies.

Charismatic and telegenic

Viktor Orban and Ferenc Gyurcsany dominate their camp without sharing. Young, telegenic, charismatic, sometimes demagogues, they are similar in many respects, even if they have been competing routes. The first was one of the leaders of the student opposition before the fall of communism in 1989. Liberal and protest fifteen years ago, Viktor Orban became conservative and nationalist. Prime Minister between 1998 and 2002, it is for a little more radicalized.

The second was one of the leaders of the Communist Youth in the 1980s, before making a fortune in business in the 1990s. Head of Government since August 2004, Ferenc Gyurcsany is claiming today of democracy and the famous "third way" so dear to Tony Blair. Modernist and pragmatic, he has rejuvenated the Socialist Party and allowed him to fill in a year and a half delay of fifteen points on the Fidesz of Viktor Orban in voting intentions. The two teams are now elbow-to-elbow in the polls. And no expert would be to predict the outcome of the elections of 9 and 23 April (the poll is two towers).

"Two Socialist parties.

The Hungarians are more likely to determine the profile of the two men sharing political lines have moved much. A become amazing. Allied with the Liberals, the Socialists argue for the continuation of privatisation, that they wish to inter alia extend to the health care system, while the Conservatives have come out against and advocated the restoration of a State high!

The ruling coalition gained the support of a majority of business leaders", said Gabor Lambert, Chief Editor Assistant of the economic weekly"Figelö ". While the Fidesz, defending the social system inherited from the Communist regime, "is trying to rally to the working classes, who missed him in the elections of 2002 lost to extreme accuracy", analysis historian Peter Kende. The Hungary has now two Socialist parties: one right and one left!

Hunting on the same land, the two teams "have engaged in a bidding of expensive promises during the campaign", said Gabor Demski, the Liberal Mayor of Budapest. The Fidesz has gone as far in announcing a decrease in social security contributions paid by employers, a decrease of the income tax, a fourteenth month for pensioners or a rising health costs. A series of measures "valued in total at 15 billion euros, or about 15 of GDP", is alarm Laszlo Akar, the pattern of the GKI Economic Research Institute.

While the public deficit "is already party to between 8 and 9 of GDP this year", according to György Barcza, Economist for ING Central Europe, after having exceeded 6 in 2005, many Hungarians are skeptical that these expensive commitments can be held. As Brussels and financial rating agencies continue to pressure for return Budapest in the nails of the stability pact. More reason to vote for a man rather than a program.