Out of nowhere: Viktor Orbán’s new challenger

Hungarian politics has a lot to offer: sex tapes, offshore bank accounts, police-dodging MEPs hanging off drainpipes, supposedly left-wing parties cheerfully backing anti-Semitic parliamentary candidates. Nevertheless, most observers would admit that there has been stagnation in the past few years. Hungary’s politics have become a stale exchange of insults between familiar faces.

Thank goodness, then, for Péter Márki-Zay, who has opened a window and let in some fresh air. He has been chosen by the opposition to the government as their candidate for prime minister in next year’s general election. And that means practically all the opposition parties in the Hungarian parliament working together. It’s like the Labour party teaming up with the Liberals, Ukip, the Greens, the SNP and the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to unseat Boris.

The crushing two-thirds majority that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has enjoyed in parliament for nearly 12 years has created some unusual bedfellows.