Hungary Prime Minister Orban On Track For Crushing Victory

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban looked set for a fourth consecutive win in Sunday’s election, as voters endorsed his ambition of a conservative, “illiberal” state and shrugged off concerns over Budapest’s close ties with Moscow.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine had appeared to upend Orban’s campaign in recent weeks, forcing him into awkward maneuvering to explain decade-old business relations with Russia.

But he mounted a successful campaign to persuade his Fidesz party’s core electorate that the six-party opposition alliance of Peter Marki-Zay promising to mend ties with the European Union could drag the country into war.

Preliminary results with 57.6% of national party list votes counted showed Orban’s Fidesz party leading with 55.7% of votes versus 32.5% for Marki-Zay’s opposition alliance. Fidesz was also ahead in the vast majority of single-member constituencies.

Based on current partial results, the National Election Office said Fidesz would have 134 seats, a two-thirds majority, and the opposition alliance would have 58 seats.

A far-right party called Our Homeland would also make it into parliament, passing the 5% threshold.

His comfortable victory, which looks all but certain now, could embolden Orban, 58, in his policy agenda which critics say amounts to a subversion of democratic norms and a muzzling of the media.

One of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, Orban has emerged as a vocal supporter of anti-immigration policies and an opponent of tough energy sanctions against Moscow.