[bonoboTP]

They were liberals at the time and spoke for tolerance etc. (Not joking, Orbán used to be a liberal, he even was the vice president of the Liberal International up until 2000 or so). He became conservative in the mid 90s.

Orbán also fiercely condemned the style of Putin's rule while he was in opposition. He accused of the then PM (socialist) of going to Putin as the party leaders went to Moscow during communism. This was up until 2008 for sure. They also waved Tibet flags when Chinese diplomats visited etc. They turned around 180 degrees on many issues since they are in govt.

[angry_octet]

Goes to show, you can never trust politicians, even when they seem nice at the time.

It's a shame the opposition are so divided and inept. Obviously control of old world media is still pretty important.

[mnyary]

The opposition just recently took back Budapest and several cities. So the situation is changing.

[bonoboTP]

Budapest has been more left leaning for a long time. The 2010 elections were special because people everywhere were very fed up with the previous socialist government for various reasons: Corruption, some effects of the global crisis were blamed on them (but they definitely contributed their own share of mismanagement), and of course the "Őszöd speech" leak wherein the PM admitted at a party meeting that they've been lying for years about the economy and they haven't got anything of significance done over the years prior.

The point is, before this landslide victory of Orbán in 2010, Budapest used to be a socialist and left liberal bastion, along with a few other cities such as Szeged. Budapest's mayor was the same left winger (Demszky) for the 20 years between 1990 and 2010.

The divide between cities and the countryside is huge though. Orbán is still overwhelmingly popular among villagers and the poor.