Víktor Orbán wins in Hungary and will start his fourth term


  • The war in Ukraine has influenced the electoral results, something that Orbán knew how to foresee when launching his campaign under the slogan “War or Peace”

Hungarian ultra-nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán won a fourth consecutive term after scoring a resounding victory in the parliamentary elections this Sunday, dominated by the insecurities aroused by the war in neighboring Ukraine.“We have achieved a huge victory,” Orbán, 58, said before thousands of supporters chanting his name in Budapest.

“A victory that can perhaps be seen from the Moon, but surely it can be seen from Brusselshe added in a criticism of the European Commission, which recently opened a file on him for the Hungarian law that prohibits talking about homosexuality to minors.

With 92% of the votes counted, the ruling Fidesz party is on track to win 135 seats in the 199-member parliamentwhile the opposition would add 56 deputies.

That would allow the government retain his two-thirds absolute majority that has allowed him to undertake changes of constitutional rank alone for the last twelve years.

That majority has guaranteed him to control all State structures – including the Constitutional Court – and, in addition to the state media, dominates through nearby businessmen almost all the capitals of the countrywhich guarantees Orbán favorable coverage.

One of the surprises of the elections has been the result of the far-right party “Nuestra Patria”, which exceeded the threshold of 5% and has 5 seats.

opponent failure

One of the symbols of the opposition’s failure has been that his candidate for prime minister, Péter Márki-Zay, has not been able to win even in his constituency from Hódmezõvásárhely, the city of which he has been mayor since 2018.

The opposition candidate, a 49-year-old economist, has complained bitterly in recent days that they would only give him the five minutes assigned by law on public television throughout the campaign, while Orbán’s presence is constant.

“I can’t hide my disappointment”said Márki-Zay in a solo appearance in which he was not supported by any of the leaders of the six parties of different ideologies that formed the “United for Hungary” coalition.

The war, determining

All in all, these elections have once again shown the Orbán’s ability to accurately read the situation and take advantage of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine that, in principle, disadvantaged him.

The first Minister, perhaps the European Union politician closest to the Russian president, Vladimir Putincorrectly interpreted voters’ fear of change in times of uncertainty and he modified the campaign slogan to “War or Peace”.

In the last month the voting intention of Fidesz has risen with the message that Orbán is an experienced leader that guarantees stability while the opposition, if it wins, could “ruin” the country and lead it to become involved in the conflict.

The solidarity of the opposition with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr ZelenskyOrbán described it as a warmongering step and argued that they were going to harm the country’s economy by joining an embargo on Russian oil and gas.

Hungary imports 85% of its gas and more than 60% of its Petroleum From Russia and Orbán has reaffirmed that he will not stop buying it because of the economic damage it would cause.

It mattered little that Orbán’s accusations were baseless or that the motto “War or peace” was ManichaeanThe important thing is that he was able to read the insecurity of an electorate that had lost its appetite for change.

admired by nationalists

The first Minister, a fierce critic of immigration, LGBT rights and “EU bureaucrats”has won the admiration of nationalists and the European extreme right, who accompanied him in his victory.

Orbán thanked in his speech to his “friends from the USA, Italy, Austria and Spain” the support received in the elections.

“Conservative politics has won, patriotand our message is that this does not represent the past, but the future,” the prime minister said.

Related news

Your victory comes when is going through its moment of most international isolationdistanced even from his partners in the Visegado Group -Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia- due to his closeness to Putin, while in the governments of Western Europe he has aroused little enthusiasm for a long time.

Some analysts speculate that in this legislature Orbán can adopt a more pro-European position to ensure the release of the European funds that Hungary needs to guarantee good economic growth.


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