The bottomless dishonesty of today's conservatives — or the nihilism of engagement farming accounts? No way to tell the difference either way

Voters are weird, pt 57

It's a Median poll though, one of the independent ones (if you're talking about the 65% TISZA number now)

This, though, +12% to 65%? That's next level (even if it's just one poll rather than an average). But I could believe it. Aside from its true believers, themselves now disoriented, Fidesz built whole electorates on patronage networks. Now that whole system has collapsed, and its incentives with it.

Fidesz enjoyed a bandwagon effect after each of its election victories too. After getting 45% in the 2014 election, it rose to 52% in the polls (+7); after getting 49% in 2018, to 54% (+5); and after getting 52.5% in 2022, to 58% (+5.5).

Everyone loves a winner, TISZA at 65% (!) edition

Can't pick, it's all bad

Having listened to some amount of Turkish, Georgian, Armenian and Bulgarian music, I really don't think anyone had to be reminded "that there is also sadness in the Black Sea region". Yeah, no kidding

Featuring "Dirty Donald" as dodgy landlord

"Black dots: Péter Magyar campaign events 2024-2026, Blue: municipalities voting for Tisza, Orange: municipalities sticking with Fidesz (graphics, data: Szabolcs Dull, Facebook)" — Csaba Tóth

* Or we hope it will be, anyway...

It's more nuanced than this,* but... funny.

Surprising to see 18.5% of its gains coming from PP-DB though, since they were the only ones who didn't actually do badly. Must themselves have pulled votes from elsewhere again, I guess.

Where did Radev's Progressive Bulgaria voters come from? Everywhere. From the left, liberal centre-right, oligarchic right, radical right

BSP support would be enough, according to 2/3 exit polls (but only just)

bsky.app/profile/elec...

Is this likely to get Radev an absolute majority, with the way seats are allocated by constituency? At most he'd just need the support of BSP.. 😬

Former colleague of my partner is in this syndicate. They make beautiful posters, but whether they quite have their finger on the pulse of 21st century generations?

My move to BlueSky came too late for this thread, really. I already posted all the good ones on the other site, in the previous years

xcancel.com/almodozo/sta...

When you're a good person

I wanted to know if the origin of the phrase "X cannot fail, it/he can only be failed goes back further than Stalin/communism ("the party"), but the historical awareness of Google AI's interview apparently doesn't even remotely reach that far back

Rayner has surprisingly horrible favourability numbers now, though, right?

Shocker: Now that the gravy train is over, Rod Dreher is abruptly fleeing Budapest, taking the intellectual scruples he's famous for with him.

Oh I must have just missed that! I left at the end of 2017, so there was an overlap of just half a year -- apparently not quite enough. It looks lovely, from what I can see in photos. And it was just around the corner from the legendary Pótkulcs; great memories there!

Oh yeah, I didn't think he deserved the credit; but I did have to keep reminding myself of that context whenever I got too exasperated, after yet another protest, about his electoral resilience. "It's the economy, stupid" and all that. But eventually, at long last, that logic turned against him!

As long as that's the case, nothing changes about Spain's electoral prospects, and the hype feels hollow.

Points to the writer, however, for observing the dark side to Sánchez's crusade against the far right. It's a righteous fight; but both motivation and outcome are starting to feel problematic.

The polling average has PSOE up 2% — still below where it was last year, still well behind an ailing PP. More importantly, even those modest gains came from other leftwing parties. The right stubbornly remains at or above 50%, which translates into a comfortable majority.

How a Fight With Trump Threw Spain’s Leader a Political Lifeline

Still don't see how the numbers match the hype about how "Trump Threw Spain’s Leader a Political Lifeline," proving that Sánchez is "Europe’s most accomplished escape artist".

The NYT links to two polls. They show PSOE up 2.5% and 1.6% from its most recent low. Hardly the stuff of global headlines

"Republicans have the momentum"

TISZA victory turns out to be even larger, as it ends up getting four more seats still — making for "an absolute record" sized two-thirds majority

telex.hu/belfold/2026...

This is one of those things where it strongly depends on what time frame you zoom in on. I see what you mean for the 60s-70s, even for the 80s even though the government narrative was about "the Evil Empire". The 50s, though? Not so much. (Nor during the previous Red Scare in the 20s.)