There will be a by-election held for a seat in the Hungarian National Assembly in the 11th Electoral District of Budapest on 23 March. The precinct’s incumbent MP László Varju of the liberal Democratic Coalition (DK) party resigned in December 2024 after being found guilty of vandalism, battery, and voter fraud.
He was convicted for his conduct at the headquarters of the Hungarian public media company MTVA back in December 2018, when, along with his fellow opposition MPs, he caused disruption to try to get on the air on public television. His voter fraud conviction pertains to another incident when he tried to bribe an independent candidate into dropping out to boost his own electoral chances ahead of the 2018 parliamentary election.
Since the right-wing populist Fidesz–KDNP coalition has a constitutional supermajority in the Hungarian parliament, Varju resigned from his seat before the House could vote to expel him, despite protesting his innocence and claiming that his prosecution was politically motivated.
However, there is a major twist to his story.
Former MP Varju decided to run in the by-election held to fill his own vacant seat after his resignation. In fact, he has already collected more than three times the signatures required to be on the ballot, as per the social media post of his DK party. He is likely to win. However, that cannot stop the Fidesz supermajority in the National Assembly from still voting to expel him after his lawful conviction.
Another interesting element to the story is that, just like in the by-election in Tolna County in January, the new opposition party Tisza has yet to nominate a candidate.
Related articles:
