Hungary's Orban banking on anti-LGBT campaign in tough re-election bid

A security officer stands guard near a huge rainbow baloon put up by members of Amnesty International and Hatter, an NGO promoting LGBT rights, at Hungary's parliament in protest against anti-LGBT law in Budapest, Hungary, July 8, 2021. REUTERS/Marton Monus/Files

KECSKEMET, Hungary (Reuters) - Prime Minister Viktor Orban is casting himself as the defender of traditional Hungarian values against "LGBT ideology" for the 2022 election in which his party may be vulnerable for the first time to a newly united opposition.

Identity politics, especially a hardline anti-immgration line, and disarray among Orban's centrist and liberal-left rivals proved instrumental in the absolute majority won by his conservative nationalist Fidesz party in the 2018 election.