Outsider Marki-Zay hopes to blunt Orban's attacks in 2022 Hungarian election

Opposition candidate for prime minister Peter Marki-Zay waits at the election headquarters after the opposition primary election in Budapest, Hungary, October 17, 2021. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Peter Marki-Zay, the small-town mayor who will take on Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary's 2022 election, figures his conservative, family-man persona will leave nationalist Orban floundering in next year's vote.

Marki-Zay beat left-wing front-runner Klara Dobrev in an opposition primary on Sunday in a major upset, as only two of the six opposition parties had endorsed him before the vote.