The victory – Fidesz’s fourth consecutive election victory – was much larger than opinion polls had suggested, following a campaign overshadowed by the war in neighboring Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced Orban to make awkward maneuvers to explain decades of ambitious business relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the 58-year-old ran a successful campaign to convince the main constituency of Fidesz’s party that an opposition six-party alliance promising to mend ties with the European Union could lead the country to war, a charge the opposition has denied. Addressing a happy crowd chanting his name in Budapest, Orban said Sunday’s victory was against all odds. “We have achieved a victory so great that it can be seen even from the moon,” he said. “We defended the sovereignty and freedom of Hungary.” Preliminary results with about 98% of the vote on the list of national parties showed that Orban’s Fidesz party leads with 53.1 percent of the vote against 35 percent for the opposition Peter Marki-Zay coalition. Fidesz also won 88 of the 106 parliamentary constituencies. Based on the preliminary results, the National Electoral Office said Fidesz would have 135 seats, a two-thirds majority, and the opposition coalition would have 56 seats. An extreme right-wing party called Our Homeland would also pass parliament, winning seven seats. Fidesz’s comfortable victory could encourage Orban on his political agenda, which critics say is tantamount to overturning democratic rules, media freedom and the rights of minorities, especially gays and lesbians. Acknowledging the defeat, Marki-Zay, 49, said Fidesz’s victory was due to what he called its huge propaganda machine, including media dominance. “I do not want to hide my frustration, my sadness με We knew it would be an uneven playing field,” he said. “We have to admit that Fidesz got a huge majority of votes. “But we still question whether these elections were democratic and free.”
The one-party rule
One of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, Orban has been a strong supporter of anti-immigration policies and an opponent of harsh energy sanctions against Moscow. Critics say he has sought to consolidate his one-party rule by revising the constitution, taking control of the majority of the media and reviewing electoral rules, and running key government positions with loyalists and rewarding businessmen close to the Fides. However, it is gaining the favor of many older, poorer voters in rural areas who embrace its traditional Christian values and with families benefiting from a range of tax breaks and fuel and some food price caps. While Orban had previously campaigned for divisive social and cultural issues, he dramatically changed the tone of his campaign following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and has since portrayed elections as a choice between peace and stability or war and chaos. While the opposition called on Hungary to support its struggling neighbor and to be committed to its allies in the EU and NATO, Orban, Putin’s longtime ally, insisted that Hungary remained neutral and maintained close economic ties with Moscow. including the resumption of imports of Russian gas and oil on favorable terms. At his last rally on Friday, Orbρίn argued that supplying Ukraine with weapons – something Hungary, only among Ukraine’s neighbors, has refused to do – would make the country a military target and that imposing sanctions on Russian energy imports will cripple Hungary’s own economy. . “This is not our war, we have to stay out of it,” Orban said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday described the Hungarian leader as irrelevant to the rest of Europe, which has joined forces to condemn Putin, support sanctions against Russia and send aid, including weapons, to Ukraine. “He is essentially the only one in Europe who openly supports Mr Putin,” Zelensky said. Speaking to supporters Sunday, Orban singled out Zelensky as part of an “overwhelming force” in which he said his party had fought in the election – “the left at home, the international left everywhere, the Brussels bureaucrats… the international mainstream “Media, and in the end, even the Ukrainian president.” His supporters responded with laughter. In parallel with the parliamentary elections, a referendum on LGBTQ issues was held on Sunday. The questions were about sex education programs in schools and the availability of gender reassignment information to children. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has sent a full observer mission to Hungary to observe Sunday’s election, just the second time it has done so in an EU country.
