Orban set for victory in Hungary vote

According to Marki-Zay, Orban has undermined democratic rights and overseen rampant government corruption in the process.

Viktor Orbán

The native form of this personal name is Orbán Viktor Mihály. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Viktor Orbán
Orbán in 2022

• László Sólyom
• Pál Schmitt
• László Kövér (Acting)
• János Áder
• Katalin Novák

Viktor Mihály Orbán
Anikó Lévai

• Erzsébet Sípos
• Győző Bálint Orbán

• Eötvös Loránd University (J.D.)
• Pembroke College, Oxford

• Politician
• lawyer

Viktor Mihály Orbán [1] (Hungarian: [ˈviktor ˈorbaːn] ( listen ) ; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian politician who has served as prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has presided over Fidesz since 1993, with a brief break between 2000 and 2003.

Orbán studied at the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University and briefly at the University of Oxford before entering politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989. He headed the reformist student movement the Alliance of Young Democrats ( Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége ), the nascent Fidesz. Orbán became nationally known after giving a speech in 1989 in which he openly demanded that Soviet troops leave the country. After the end of Communism in Hungary in 1989 and the country’s transition to multiparty democracy the following year, he was elected to the National Assembly and led Fidesz’s parliamentary caucus until 1993. Under his leadership, Fidesz shifted away from its original centre-right, classical liberal, pro-European platform toward right-wing, national populism.

Orbán’s first term as prime minister, from 1998 to 2002 at the head of a conservative coalition government, was dominated by the economy and Hungary’s entry into NATO. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2010. In 2010, Orbán was again elected prime minister. Central issues during Orbán’s second premiership have included major constitutional and legislative reforms, in particular the 2013 amendments to the Constitution of Hungary, as well as the European migrant crisis, the lex CEU, and the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary. He was reelected in 2014, 2018, and 2022. On 29 November 2020, he became the country’s longest-serving prime minister. [2]

Because of Orbán’s curtailing of press freedom, erosion of judicial independence, and undermining of multiparty democracy, many political scientists and watchdogs consider Hungary to have experienced democratic backsliding during Orbán’s tenure. [3] [4] [5] Orbán’s harsh criticism of the policies favored by the European Union while accepting their money and funneling it to his allies and family have also led to accusations that his government is a kleptocracy. [6] His government has also been characterized as an autocracy. [7]

Between 2010 and 2020, Hungary dropped 69 places in the Press Freedom Index, [8] [9] and lost 11 places in the Democracy Index (The Economist); [10] [11] Freedom House has downgraded the country from “free” to “partly free”. [12] The V-Dem Democracy indices rank Hungary 2023 as 96th electoral democracy in the world. [13] Orbán defends his policies as “illiberal Christian democracy”. [14] [15] As a result, Fidesz was suspended from the European People’s Party from March 2019; [16] in March 2021, Fidesz left the EPP over a dispute over new rule-of-law language in the latter’s bylaws. [17] In a July 2022 speech, Orbán criticized the miscegenation of European and non-European races, saying: “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race and we do not want to become a mixed race.” [18] [19] Two days later in Vienna, he clarified that he was talking about cultures and not genetics. [20] His tenure has seen Hungary’s government shift towards what he has called “illiberal democracy”, citing countries such as China, Russia, India, Singapore, Israel and Turkey as models of governance, while simultaneously promoting Euroscepticism and opposition to Western democracy and establishment of closer ties with China and Russia. [21] [22] [23]

Orban set for victory in Hungary vote

Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared victory in Hungary’s parliamentary election after partial results showed his ruling Fidesz party is comfortably ahead of their opposition rivals.

https://p.dw.com/p/49OQD
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared victory on Sunday after early results in the country’s national election showed a strong lead for his right-wing Fidesz party.

With 75% of votes tallied, Orban’s Fidesz-led coalition had won 54.5% of the votes versus 34% for a six-party opposition alliance.

The preliminary results showed Fidesz taking 135 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament, while the opposition was set to take 57 seats.

The opposition alliance, United For Hungary, later conceded defeat.

The opposition’s prime minister candidate, Peter Marki-Zay, said that the voting conditions had been stacked against them and urged supporters to keep up hope.

Orban on track for fourth term

Speaking to supporters and party officials on Sunday evening, Orban declared the election a “huge victory” for Fidesz.

“We won a victory so big that you can see it from the moon, and you can certainly see it from Brussels,” the prime minister said, taking a jab at the European Union which as repeatedly condemned the Hungarian leader for democratic backsliding.

Sunday’s national election had voters decide whether to give Orban a fourth term in office or to throw their weight behind a new six-party opposition alliance in an election overshadowed by the war in neighboring Ukraine.

The polls took place amid accusations by opposition groups and international observers that Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party are favored by a widespread pro-government bias in the public media and heavy gerrymandering of election districts.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, looked like it could have given the opposition United For Hungary a handhold.

Its candidate for prime minister, Peter Marki-Zay, highlighted Orban’s close political and business relations with Moscow and called for Hungary to act in concert with EU partners on sanctions and weapons deliveries.

Opposition election posters have warned of Orban being a ‘Hungarian Putin.’Image: DW

What is Orban’s stance on the Ukraine conflict?

Orban, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has stated that Hungary must remain neutral and maintain its close economic ties with Moscow, including continuing to import Russian gas and oil.

Although he has supported an EU decision to send arms to Ukraine, he has rejected allowing weapons to be shipped from Hungarian territory, saying such a move could pose a security risk.

“This isn’t our war, we have to stay out of it,” Orban said at his final campaign rally on Friday.

On Sunday, while casting his vote in the capital, Budapest, he described the election as a choice between peace and war and again accused his opponents of trying to drag Hungary into the Ukraine conflict.

Asked about his ties with Moscow and Putin, Orban replied: “I am standing on the basis of the Hungarian national interests; I am pro-Hungarian.”

The anti-Orban roadshow in Hungary

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What does the opposition say?

Marki-Zay accused Orban of siding with Putin in the conflict and said the prime minister’s moves had left him isolated within the EU, with which Orban has frequently anyway been at loggerheads.

The opposition leader cast the poll as a choice between East and West, charging Orban with turning Hungary toward Russia and away from the EU where it belongs.

According to Marki-Zay, Orban has undermined democratic rights and overseen rampant government corruption in the process.

Marki-Zay says the election is a choice between East and WestImage: Laszlo Balogh/AP/picture alliance

Orban, who sees himself as an advocate of “illiberal democracy,” has taken control of many of his country’s democratic institutions while claiming he is defending European Christendom against Muslim migrants, progressive trends and the “LGBTQ lobby.” These attitudes have frequently brought him into conflict with the EU.

United for Hungary, for its part, has called for a new political culture based on pluralistic governance and the restoration of damaged alliances with the EU and NATO.

The opposition alliance included the leftist Democratic Coalition, the liberal Momentum party and the Jobbik party, the latter having turned from being far-right to moderate.

mm, tj/rs (AP, AFP, dpa)