PM opens Fidesz campaign for local election

The prime minister said Fidesz had never before fielded so many mayoral and local councillor candidates -- more than all the other political parties taken together.

    "One gets the impression -- and has every reason to -- that there is a single national party, a single people s party, one can trust and assign responsibility to for Hungary s future," he said.

    Orban emphasised that Hungary needs a strong economy, jobs, law and order; goals, he said, which Fidesz and its Christian Democrat ally can attain with public support.

    Orban at the same time said now was not the time for complacency, adding that voters should not extrapolate the outcome of the local election from the general elections or the results of recent polling surveys.

    Recent polls show Fidesz to have maintained an overwhelming lead over the main rival Socialists ahead of the local elections.