BUDAPEST / BRUSSELS (Aftenposten): Just before midnight, Hungary’s controversial prime minister, Viktor Orban, declared that he had won the election and could embark on his fourth term in office.
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The case is being updated
He is now the leader in Europe who has been in power the longest. The only element of uncertainty seems to be whether Orban and his party Fidesz will achieve a so-called “super majority”, ie a 2/3 majority.
Which gives the party the right to change the constitution.
- When 90 percent of the votes were counted, Fidesz was poised to get 134 representatives in parliament and 67 percent of the votes.
- The opposition was expected to get 28 percent and 57 representatives.
At the same time, opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay announced that he accepted Orban and Fidesz’s victory.
Disappointed opposition
Maki-Zay and a united opposition failed to wrest power from Hungary’s strong man.
Neither the war in Ukraine, Orban’s close ties to Putin, nor the opposition’s tactics of voting as a united group held.
Orban has been in power since 2010. This will be his fourth term.
Close ties with Putin did not weaken Orban
Orban has been one of Russia’s hottest supporters in the EU and has rejected President Volodymyr Zelensky’s desire for arms support and sanctions against Russia’s energy sector. He also refuses other countries to transport weapons to Ukraine via Hungary.
Orban was warmly received in the Kremlin no later than three weeks before the war and has been called Putin’s poodle in Europe.
–Pointing nose to EU
Orban has gone in the exact opposite direction when it comes to the EU, which he describes as an oppressive regime and compares with the Soviet Union. He is also a strong opponent of LGBTQ rights and immigration, and garners great recognition from like-minded people far to the right in both Europe and the United States.
- Simultaneously with Sunday’s election, a referendum will also be held on four issues related to laws that will, among other things, limit the possibility of giving Hungarian children education about sexual orientation and the possibility of telling children about gender reassignment surgery.
The EU has strongly criticized the proposals, which are reminiscent of the controversial law against gay propaganda in Russia.
Agreed with the family
Both Viktor Orban and opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay cast votes with their families on Sunday. Orban and his wife in Budapest, while Mark-Zay voted in his hometown in southern Hungary. He was with his wife and some of his seven children.
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–The opposition’s last hope
In an attempt to remove Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his nationalist Fidesz party from power, six parties – from the far right to the far left – had joined forces in one alliance, “United for Hungary”, “Together for Hungary”.
– This is the opposition’s last desperate attempt to prevent darkness from sinking over Hungary for good, Nick Sitter said in an interview with Aftenposten before the election. He is a professor of political economy and an expert on Central and Eastern Europe.
–In the last week, opinion polls have shown a steady flow between Orban’s Fidesz and the opposition alliance.
But that does not hold for the opposition.
The rules of the game changed
In recent years, both the electoral system and the constituencies have changed in favor of Fidesz.
The opposition must also win by a larger margin to win the same number of seats. Being the biggest in the polls is not enough to win, explains Nick Sitte, professor and expert on Central and Eastern Europe.
Polls showed that Orban’s party Fidesz has a narrow lead of 39 percent, against the opposition’s 36 percent. 19 percent have not decided.
Politicos poll of pollswhich shows a collection of polls over time, gives Orban’s party a bigger lead: 50 percent Fidesz and 44 percent for the opposition alliance.
– If the opposition wins many one-man circles, it can be very exciting. If Fidesz wins these, the race is over, Professor Nick Sitter told Aftenposten last week.
The latter seemed to strike tonight.
Controversial and criticized
In the 2010 election, Fidesz won a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, something they had until 2015.
- It gave the party the power to get through a new controversial new constitution, a constitution the opponents believed undermined democracy.
- Orban’s government has also often been in conflict with the EU, of which Hungary has been a part since 2004. Hungary refuses, among other things, to accept the quota of refugees the EU has allocated to them.
- After the 2018 election, which Fidesz won by a landslide, tens of thousands protested against Orban and demanded a free press and changes in the election law.
The background was that critics of the government thought the press had been made a mouthpiece for the government. They also thought that the votes should be counted again.
- Here you can read more cases from our reporting team in Hungary before the election:
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