NID: HUNGARY: ELECTION CAMPAIGN HEATING UP

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826875
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: March 7, 1990

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826875
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HUNGARY: Election Campaign Heating Up
_ Polls indicate the pro-Western, market-oriented Free Democrats may
be best placed to head a coalition that would form Hmagary's fast
non-Communist government in more than 40 years after the election
on 25 March
The liberal Alliance of Free Democrats has caught up with the
centrist Hungarian Democratic Forum, according to Hungary's
untested public opinion polls. The ruling Socialists�the renamed
and reformed Communists�continued their slide; they and the
hardline Communist Party receive high negative ratings from
voters, practically eliminating any chance of a rebound. More than
AO percent of the voters remain undecided, however, and support for
the new parties is weak among those who claim to have made up their
minds
The new opposition parties have all rejected coalition with the
Socialists. Democratic Forum and Free Democrat leaders have said
they will form a coalition with each other only if they have no
alternative. The rural-based independent Smallholders�whose price
for coalition is acceptance of a scheme designed to return land to its
pre-1948 owners�may hold the balance of power. It leans toward the
Free Democrats but is also open to joining with the Forum
Comment: Voters, demoralized over the sagging economy and
skeptical of the reform parties' ability to deliver on platform
commitments, will be slow to make up their minds. The well-funded
and well-organized Free Democrats appear to have a good chance of
winning a plurality, but the polls indicate a coalition of at least three
parties will be required to form a working majority in the legislature,
suggesting protracted wranalina hefrire a new government is formed.
8
TCS 2754/90
7 March 1990
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826875