Budapest Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed victory in the parliamentary elections for his national conservative party Fidesz. He has been given a mandate for a fourth term, Orban said on Sunday evening. Partial results indicated a clear success for Fidesz. After counting almost 75 percent of the votes, the party was clearly ahead with 54.5 percent, according to the national electoral office. The pro-European opposition alliance “Hungary in Unity” received almost 34 percent of the votes. Observers thought it possible that Fidesz would regain a constitutional majority. The election was for 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament.
Orban was applauded during a ten-minute appearance in front of party officials and supporters in Budapest. He spoke of a “huge victory” for Fidesz. “We achieved such a great victory that you can see it from the moon and you can definitely see it from Brussels,” he said.
The polls predicted the closest race for his Fidesz party since Orban took office in 2010. This was attributed to an opposition alliance of six parties, which put ideological differences aside in favor of joining forces against Fidesz. But even in his home constituency, opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay trailed behind long-time Fidesz incumbent Janos Lazar. As the lead candidate of Unity Hungary, Marki-Zay had vowed to stop rampant government corruption and raise living standards by increasing funding for Hungary’s health care and education system.
The opposition also appealed to voters to punish Orban for his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orban, on the other hand, warned of an economic decline in the event of his deselection and an expected departure from Russia. He advocated a sticking to Russian energy imports and a neutral stance for Hungary in dealing with Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
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“This is not our war, we have to stay out of it,” Orban said on Friday at his last campaign appearance in front of hundreds of supporters in the city of Szekesfehervar. “We can stay out of it by not sending soldiers or weapons, and not allowing arms shipments across Hungary’s territory, because then we would immediately become a military target.”
Among Ukraine’s neighbors, Hungary stands alone with the decision not to supply the country with arms. Although Orban has condemned the Russian war against Ukraine, he is reluctant to blame Putin directly. Since taking office, Orban has developed close ties with the Kremlin chief.
Hungary’s head of government has also vehemently opposed sanctions against Russia’s fossil fuel industry, because his country is heavily dependent on it. Just last week, Orban pointed out that 85 percent of the natural gas and more than 60 percent of the oil in his country come from Russia.
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