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(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Viktor Orban was already facing an uphill battle to turn around poll numbers, buffeted by an extended economic slump and allegations of rampant corruption in Hungary.
That task has only gotten more difficult after a series of whistleblower testimonies ahead of the April 12 elections.
The latest to step forward was Special Forces Army Captain Szilveszter Palinkas, who had been the face of the military’s recruitment campaign. In an with the Telex news website on Thursday, he described a deeply politicized military where a long-running state of emergency that limited the ability of soldiers to quit was the only thing preventing a mass exodus that would cut the NATO member’s defense capacity to “near zero.”
Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky, a close business ally of Orban who had no prior military experience and who’s overseen a in the already depleted ranks of the army, said in a Facebook that the military was “independent of party politics and will stay that way.”
“The optics aren’t great for Orban,” said Peter Kreko, director of Political Capital in Budapest. “He’s trying to show strength but these whistleblowers questioning the integrity of state institutions are undercutting his message.”
Palinkas’ comments follow on from interviews, many of which have gone viral in Hungary and hurt Orban’s bid for a fifth consecutive term. The developments are raising the chances of a potential landslide win by the opposition Tisza party,...
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