Viktor Orban looked set for re-election for a fourth consecutive and fifth overall term as Hungary’s prime minister after taking a decisive majority on Sunday in the central European country with more than half of the votes counted.
The result counts as a major surprise after surveys had predicted ruling party and opposition to be within a few percentage points of one another. The last poll, published on Saturday, had put Orban’s Fidesz party and the opposition neck and neck on 47 per cent each among those certain to vote.
The hardline nationalist Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) movement looks set to enter parliament with 6.5 per cent of the vote according to the count so far. The party broke off from the former far-right Jobbik group in 2018 after it transformed itself into a centrist group.
Orban, a populist conservative, has held power for 12 years, becoming the EU’s longest-serving leader. He has extended his control over most walks of life on the way to forming a self-styled “illiberal democracy” in which checks and balances have been weakened and the premier has used his associates to form a new business elite.
He has locked horns with the European Union over an erosion of democratic standards and developed cordial relations with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, while Hungary and Ukraine have differed for years over minority rights.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had looked to have turned Orban’s close ties with the Kremlin into a political liability but the prime minister stood by his proclaimed neutrality even as domestic and international criticism mounted for him to take a moral stand with his western allies against Russia and for Ukraine.
“This was a prime minister election more than a parliament election as Viktor Orban’s high popularity ratings are reflected in the overall result,” said Agoston Mraz of the pro-Orban Nezopont Institute think-tank in Budapest.
For a decade the fragmented opposition has been unable to tackle Orban, who won election after election until parties united against the ruling Fidesz in a 2019 municipal vote, then used that blueprint to mount a unified challenge against the incumbent in this year’s general elections.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has deployed a full monitoring team for Sunday’s parliamentary vote. The OSCE deemed previous Hungarian elections free but not fair because of the dominant presence of Fidesz in media and advertising and because of a heavily gerrymandered voting system.
There have been no reports of serious incidents during the day. The OSCE is expected to release its findings on Monday.
Orban has held on to his job despite a difficult past few years, with Hungary enduring one of the world’s highest per capita death rates in the Covid-19 pandemic, surging inflation and constant conflict with the EU over rule of law issues.
Asked what he thought about Russia’s aggression, and the role of Putin, just after he cast his vote in an affluent Budapest district on Sunday morning, Orban said: “Putin does not run in the Hungarian elections so luckily I don’t have to deal with that today.”
Although Orban has faced increasing criticism even from Poland, his closest partners in the European Union and Nato, he said he was not worried about international isolation.
“An EU and Nato member can never be isolated,” he said.
The election pitched Orban against Peter Marki-Zay, a 49-year-old Catholic father of seven and mayor of Hodmezovasarhely, a small town in southern Hungary. Marki-Zay was the unexpected winner of the country’s inaugural primary election last autumn, beating better-established rivals.
Marki-Zay has called Orban “the Hungarian Putin” in an attempt to capitalise on Orban’s longstanding Russian ties. The prime minister has argued Ukraine is fighting a war that has nothing to do with Hungary and that Russian energy supplies remain indispensable for Budapest.
But the opposition candidate lost not only the national race but his individual district, where Orban’s former chief of staff, Janos Lazar, beat him easily for the local parliamentary seat.
Credit: Source link
