The far-right leader takes advantage of an electoral reform tailored to his needs after a campaign marked by the Russian invasion
The ultranationalist Viktor Orban, at the head of the Fidesz party, became the winner of the elections held in Hungary this Sunday. An expected victory, among other variables, for an electoral reform that he designed to suit him and for the control that he has been intensifying over the media. He made everything predictable. Although for the first time, yes, he faced a coalition made up of six parties with a wide ideological spectrum determined to put foot in the wall and neutralize his authoritarian drifts. At the helm, an independent, Peter Marki-Zay.
The first official results, with just 16.76% of ballots processed, gave it 61.93% support compared to 27% for the United for Hungary coalition. But the count would be readjusted over the hours. The path that the previous polls had pointed out (at the closure of the 10,000 polling stations) and signed by the Median demoscopic center granted, in fact, 121 seats to the Fidesz party (compared to the current 133); 49% of the votes compared to 41% of the melting pot of parties (right-wing populists, environmentalists or liberals) created as the ‘anti-Orban’ list. A margin that, a priori, would not allow him to comfortably undertake a reform of the Constitution. The turnout was similar to that of the elections four years ago.
Marki-Zay was unable to change the forecasts that for weeks had awarded the far-right leader the fifth victory (the fourth he has achieved in a row). The campaign for what were the ninth elections in the country since the end of the communist period (1989) has been conditioned by the war in neighboring Ukraine, as is happening in other ongoing processes, like the French elections.
Low profile against Putin
Orban has printed the least forceful message of the EU against the Kremlin under the argument of the total neutrality of his Government and the defense of pacifism. In the ‘club’ he was already considered the least critical president of Vladimir Putin. And on this occasion he has stood out to his electorate as a guarantor of “stability” in the devilish stage that Europe is experiencing.
And it goes without saying that the card of an electoral reform that his party carried out with the absolute majority it achieved in the 2010 elections has played in his favor, and that in practice gives greater specific weight to the rural areas of the country. , which have traditionally been more permeable to conservatism.
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