Hungarian government proposes changes in electoral law and financing of political parties

Hungarian deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjen has made a proposal to modify the electoral law. The proposed changes concern making it more complicated for independent deputies to get voted into parliament. The new rule states that if a party can’t manage to put up a candidate in at least 50 out of 174 individual electoral districts, located in Budapest and minimum 9 counties, then the national list will be deleted. At the same time the proposal mentions a change in financing of political parties from the state budget based on allocation of votes and deputies elected into parliament. These are in favour of the larger parties, as those who put out candidates in all districts will receive double the amount of subsidies as those who only managed to put up a candidate in 50 districts. Opposition parties took control of 10 of Hungary’s largest cities, including the capital Budapest, by uniting on a common platform and jointly fielding candidates in October 2019.