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Central Europe
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Hungary's ruling party retains supermajority after sweeping election victory
bne IntelliNews
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will retain his position for the next four years after his ruling Fidesz party swept to a supermajority for the third consecutive time on April 8, beating most esti- mates as turnout was near record levels at 70%.
Hungarian assets rose in value after the landslide election win, despite analysts’ forecasts of further conflicts between an emboldened new Orban government and the EU, that could damage Hungary economically.
Fidesz received 48.5% of the votes on the party list (votes are cast for party lists and in single-seat constituencies), up from 43% four years ago, with nearly 2mn votes cast for the incumbent party. The win gives Orban's party 133 seats in the 199 seat legislature, a two-thirds majority by a single vote.
The election map shows Hungary turning orange, the colour of the ruling party, which dominated the landscape everywhere, especially in smaller towns and rural areas.
The results show that Fidesz managed to efficiently mobilise its base due to its vast network of activists and huge database of supporters. Contrary to the expectations of many political analysts, they managed to turn a high turnout to their advantage.
Opposition parties suffered a major blow in Sunday's election, winning only 15 of the 106 individual districts, most of them in Budapest. They had previously been emboldened by the win
Hungary's populist leader Viktor Orban wins sweeping majority
of an independent candidate in a mayoral by- election in a Fidesz stronghold in February, but they failed to reach a compromise on withdrawing their candidates in favour of the strongest rivals to Fidesz and running on a joint list, the only viable chance for them to unseat Fidesz MPs under the current election system.
After talks of a wider cooperation between them failed, they pinned their hopes on a high turnout, as the polls showed the vast majority of the 1mn undecided voters favouring a change of govern- ment, but this hope proved to be unfounded.
Parties failed to come up with a clear economic vision but more importantly, they failed to respond to the aggressive Fidesz campaign, and their message of widespread corruption in Hungary did not get through to voters, analysts said.
Right-wing Jobbik won 19.5% of the popular vote but got only 27 seats due to the structure of the election system. Despite leaving its racist and anti-EU rhetoric behind, the party managed to win just a single new district. Jobbik party leader Gabor Vona announced his resignation after the results came out.
The campaign was one of the nastiest ever as Fidesz has narrowed down its campaign message to the single issue of immigration, painting an apocalyptical view of the country if it accepted even a few thousand migrants. The government has spent hundreds of billions of forints on ads and billboards in the last couple of years.