Hungary's ruling Fidesz party has pulled four percentage points ahead of the opposition alliance, according to a survey of voter intentions by the think-tank IDEA Institute published on Monday ahead of the April 3 parliamentary election.
The survey put total support for the alliance of six opposition parties at 34% and for the nationalist Fidesz of long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orban at 38%.
Since the institute's January survey the governing party has lost one percentage point of its support while the opposition alliance has fallen three percentage points. The share of undecided voters has grown to 13% from 10% since January.
Orban will in April face a united opposition front for the first time since taking office with a landslide election win in 2010.
The opposition alliance includes the Democratic Coalition, the Socialists, liberals and the formerly far-right, and now centre-right, Jobbik. Its candidate for prime minister is Peter Marki-Zay, an independent who is currently mayor of Hodmezovasarhely, a town in southern Hungary.
According to the survey, the far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) party added to its support and reached 5%, the threshold for getting into parliament.
Another fringe party, the Two-Tailed Dog Party (TTDP), scored 2% in the survey.
DATE AGENCY FIDESZ OPPOSITION UNDECIDED
Jan 31-Feb 9 IDEA 38 34 13
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
(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
