- In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban can expect a fourth term in office.
- According to the first interim results after the polls were closed, Orban’s national conservative Fidesz party is predicted to have a clear majority.
- After counting 58 percent of the votes on the national party lists, Fidesz has a 55.7 percent share of the vote.
- The opposition six-party alliance “Hungary in Unity” around 49-year-old Peter Marki-Zay comes to 32.5 percent.
This information was provided by the national electoral office. Despite the low count, election researchers assume that Orban’s Fidesz party will have a comfortable majority in the new parliament.
Opposition coalition candidate for prime minister Peter Marki-Zay took to his social media page to thank everyone who cast their votes. He also thanked the more than 20,000 tellers deployed by opposition parties at polling stations across the country.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has deployed an Election Observation Mission to monitor the elections – only the second time it has done so in an EU country.
Ukraine war affects the election campaign
In connection with the Ukraine war, the opposition called for support for the neighboring country and joint action with EU and NATO partners. But Prime Minister Orban, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisted that Hungary remain neutral and maintain its economic ties with Moscow.
At a campaign rally on Friday, Orban said supplying arms to Ukraine would make the country a military target. “This is not our war, we have to stay out of it,” Orban said.
Opposition candidate Marki-Zay has promised to end what he says is rampant in government corruption. After casting his vote, Marki-Zay described Sunday’s election as an “uphill battle” due to Fidesz’s superior economic resources and media lead.
Orban’s fifth term is coming up
Victor Orban has governed Hungary since 2010. He is now seeking a fifth term, the fourth in a row. Critics accuse him of an authoritarian style of government. In the EU, to which the country has belonged since 2004, he has started numerous conflicts.
For SRF correspondent Peter Balzli, Orban is an extremely cunning and sometimes unscrupulous communicator. In addition, around 80 percent of the media in Hungary is directly or indirectly in the hands of the government. This creates a huge imbalance in reporting. “It is to be expected that the Fidesz party will not win with a two-thirds majority as before, but with an absolute majority,” Balzli draws a preliminary conclusion.
Six opposition parties wanted to overthrow Orban
Six parties created the joint list “Hungary in Unity” for the parliamentary elections and determined the joint candidates for the 106 direct constituencies in primary elections they organized themselves. The joint top candidate, the non-party conservative Peter Marki-Zay, also emerged from these primary elections.
The opposition alliance includes the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the social-democratic Democratic Coalition (DK), the left-green Dialogue party, the green party Politics can be different (LMP), the liberal Momentum party and the right-conservative party Jobbik (The Better Ones).