Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence

The significance of counties has been steadily declining since 1990 and in 2010 their competences were drastically reduced. The declining importance of counties is reflected in the 2019 county election results. Turnout was low and the alliance FIDESZ-KDNK has won absolute majorities in all 19 county assemblies. In addition, opposition parties and non governmental organisations (which can participate in county elections) were practically invisible and most statewide parties have abolished their county-level branches. Nevertheless, the opposition managed to achieve electoral successes in Budapest and in ten large cities. In this election report we discuss the impact of various centralization and electoral system reforms on the 2019 county election results.