Gergely Karácsony

A major scandal rocked opposition parties as it was confirmed that former PM candidate Peter Marki-Zay's Movement for Hungary and some opposition-allied organisations received funds totalling 4 billion forints (10 million euros) from abroad before the April 2022 election.

Critics say the cost of the campus would be higher than what the government spends each year on running all of the country's state-run universities. The contract is also classified, just like the other big Chinese project in Hungary, the construction of a new Belgrade-Budapest railway.

"I wish to have a government of experts, where not party loyalty but expertise and leadership skills would count," he tells BIRN, adding that he has no doubt that his position in the coalition as prime minister would remain solid.

"I was a village boy, coming from the heartland, where people worked and struggled to survive. Like my parents. And it is here where I learnt to love and appreciate this land," he declared in a somewhat amateurish Facebook video.

Fidesz campaign manager Lajos Kosa explained his party's disappointing results with the telling words: "Democracy still exists in Hungary."

Gellert Rajcsanyi, editor of conservative weekly Mandiner — which belongs to the government-funded Central European Press and Media Foundation — went further.