BUDAPEST - Hungary's governing Fidesz party gained a two-point lead this month over the united opposition in the campaign for the April 3 election, according to an opinion poll by Zavecz Research published by news site Telex on Monday.
For the first time since taking power in a 2010 landslide win, Prime Minister Viktor Orban will face a united front of opposition parties in parliamentary elections.
The opposition alliance includes the Democratic Coalition, the Socialists, liberals and the formerly far-right, and now centre-right, Jobbik.
The Zavecz institute's survey put support for the six united opposition parties at 36% of all voters, while Orban's Fidesz scored 38%, up from 37% measured by the pollster in November. The opposition lost five percentage points since then.
Zavecz said that two fringe parties, the Two-Tailed Dog Party (TTDP) and far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) gained supporters since last year but were still below the 5% threshold for getting into parliament.
The Two-Tailed Dog Party's support was 2% while support for Mi Hazank was at 3%, according to the poll.
DATE AGENCY FIDESZ OPPOSITION UNDECIDED
Feb 2-10 Zavecz 38 36 20
Jan 20-25 Republikon 36 34 22
Jan 4-14 IDEA 39 37 10
Dec 4-7 Median 39 34 13
Dec 9-14 Republikon 33 36 24
Nov 2-12 Zavecz 37 41 14
Nov 2-3 Nezopont 56 42 2
Oct 25-29 Republikon 32 38 30
Oct 11-19 Zavecz 35 39 23
Sept 29-Oct 4 Median 37 37 17
Oct Szazadveg 50 44 6
Sept Zavecz 37 38 23
Sept 20-21 Nezopont 53 45 N/A
Aug 23-25 Nezopont 52 46 N/A