(ANSA-AFP) - BUDAPEST, DEC 21 - Hungarian opposition parties buoyed by opinion polls said Sunday they had agreed to form a united front aimed at ejecting hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban in 2022 legislative elections. Liberal, green, socialist and former far-right groups want to "return to the nation the freedom and prosperity promised" when communism fell three decades ago, they said in a statement. The united front of the entire opposition is a first since Orban returned to power in EU member Hungary in 2010. Under the new pact, the parties will hold joint primaries to select a single candidate in each constituency and a single national list for the proportional element of the vote. They vow never to cooperate with Orban's Fidesz party and never to select as a candidate "those who have participated in the crimes of corruption characteristic of his regime". Opposition leaders also want to open secret communist archives, combat misuse of public and European funds and restore the rule of law and freedom of the press. And they promise to make the supreme court independent and rewrite the constitution, which has frequently been amended under Orban -- including a recent change effectively excluding gay couples from adopting.

Orban has long been accused of undermining democracy and the rule of law. One amendment passed this week requires opposition parties to field candidates in almost half of constituencies to be able to mount a national list, more than doubling the current requirement. Opposition groups denounced the move as designed to protect Fidesz in the 2022 elections. After losing control of capital Budapest last year, the prime minister and his party have suffered in polling in recent months as their management of the coronavirus pandemic has come in for criticism. On Wednesday, a survey by pollsters Median showed 41 percent of voters would pick an opposition party compared with 39 percent for Fidesz. Orban's outfit was also weakened when a high-profile MEP close to the prime minister was arrested for breaching lockdown rules to attend a gay orgy in Brussels. The European lawmaker, Josef Szajer, had been vocal in opposing Christian values to any expansion of LGBT rights. Of Hungary's 199 MPs, 106 are elected in their constituencies and the remainder by proportional representation from national lists. Since last week's change in electoral law, parties must field candidates in 71 districts to be able to present a national list, rather than 27 as before. (ANSA-AFP).