Leader of the Opposition (Hungary)

The Opposition (Hungarian: Ellenzék) in Hungary is the body of political parties represented in the parliament which are not a part of the government supported by the parliamentary majority.

Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent Péter Jakab since 25 January 2020
Term length	While leader of the largest political party not in government

The Leader of the Opposition (Hungarian: Az ellenzék vezére) is the unofficial title held by the leader of the largest party of the opposition.

History

The Leader of the Opposition is normally the leader of the largest party not within the government, which is usually the second largest political party in the National Assembly.

Following the first democratic election in 1990 after the end of communism, Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) suffered a close defeat, thus becoming the leading opposition force in the parliament. After the fall of the conservative government at the following 1994 parliamentary election, SZDSZ, the second largest party, surprised many by entering into a coalition with the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), which achieved a remarkable revival, winning an overall majority of 209 seats out of 386.[1] Thus Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), only with 38 MPs became the largest opposition party, while the government had a two-thirds majority.

On 4 March 1996, 15 MPs left MDF and formed Hungarian Democratic People's Party (MDNP), as a result agrarian right-wing Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (FKgP) became the largest opposition party. By 1997, several parliamentarians had joined the Fidesz, mainly from the disintegrating Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP). The Fidesz became the main challenger to the socialist-liberal cabinet.

From 1998 until 2010, there was a de facto two-party system in Hungary. MSZP suffered a heavy defeat in the 2010 election (won by Fidesz with a two-thirds majority), gaining only 19,3% of the votes, and 59 seats in the parliament, nevertheless the Socialists were able to maintain their leading role in the opposition, while Hungarian politics became a dominant-party system. The 2014 parliamentary election confirmed this position. Socialist Party Gyula Molnár was the Leader of the Opposition from 25 June 2016 to 2018. After Jobbik became the largest opposition party in the 2018 parliamentary election, the unofficial title belonged to Tamás Sneider, from 2018 to 2020 when he was replaced at Jobbik's Congress by Péter Jakab who has held the post since.

List of leaders of the Opposition

No.	Leader		Political Party	Term of office
1		János Kis	SZDSZ	1990–1991
2		Péter Tölgyessy	SZDSZ	1991–1992
3		Iván Pető	SZDSZ	1992–1994
4		Lajos Für	MDF	1994–1996
5		József Torgyán	FKgP	1996–1997
6		Viktor Orbán	Fidesz	1997–1998
7		Gyula Horn	MSZP	1998
8		László Kovács	MSZP	1998–2002
9		Zoltán Pokorni	Fidesz	2002
10		János Áder	Fidesz	2002–2003
(6)		Viktor Orbán	Fidesz	2003–2010
11		Ildikó Lendvai	MSZP	2010
12		Attila Mesterházy	MSZP	2010–2014
—		László Botka[2]	MSZP	2014
13		József Tóbiás	MSZP	2014–2016
14		Gyula Molnár	MSZP	2016–2018
15		Tamás Sneider	Jobbik	2018–2020
16		Péter Jakab	Jobbik	2020–present

References

1. Bodan Todosijević The Hungarian Voter: Left–Right Dimension as a Clue to Policy Preferences in International Political Science Review (2004), Vol 25, No. 4, p. 421
2. Acting Leader of the Opposition

See also

• Politics of Hungary