BUDAPEST: Hungarians officially part of the Hungarian nation again” after the post-World War I Trianon Treaty handed over swathes of territory and population to neighbouring countries.
And thanks to rule changes in 2012, these dual citizens abroad can vote by post in Hungary’s elections — including on April 8.
All but a handful of those registering to vote are expected to cast their ballot in gratitude for Orban’s party, Fidesz, which polls predict will remain in power for a third consecutive term.
Around half of the two-million-strong diaspora next door to Hungary lives in the Transylvania region of central Romania, with clusters in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine.
In the mostly ethnic-Hungarian town of Dunajska Streda in Slovakia, a country home to some half a million Magyars — almost 10 percent of the population — Trianon still stings almost 100 years on.
“For us Hungary is the motherland,” said Gabor Racz, 43, outside a cultural centre where posters advertise visiting performers from Budapest.
Since coming into power in 2010 Orban, who in recent years has portrayed himself as an anti-immigration patriot, has pumped funding into Hungarian schools, churches and cultural institutions abroad.
“Orban speaks on a national and ethnic level, it resonates with Hungarians across the border,” Nandor Bardi, a historian at the Academy of Sciences in Budapest, told AFP.
Some 95 percent of cross-border voters at the last election in 2014 plumped for Orban’s party, and a similar proportion is expected in April.
