Hungary: Jobbik's right-wing extremists place third in parliamentary elections

The Hungarian parliamentary elections have been won as expected by the governing conservative Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz) party. With almost 90 % of the ballots counted, the coalition of Christian Democrats and Fidesz should once again win the two-thirds majority required by the constitution. 

The Hungarian Central Election Commission announced the results today. Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, who is the head of Fidesz, then announced the party’s electoral victory. 

Orbán said he believes the elections prove Hungary is Europe’s most-united country. Conservatives will now take 133 of the 199 seats in the new parliament.

The left (Hungarian Socialist Party) came in second place with 38 seats. The radical right-wing Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) came in third place with 23 seats. 

A liberal environmental party called Another Politics is Possible (LMP) seems to have crossed the 5 % threshold for making it into parliament as well. That result was announced after almost 88 % of the ballots had been counted. 

Voter turnout was 63.8 %, a bit lower than the first round of voting in 2010. "This is no random victory. We have achieved a broad victory whose significance we cannot yet fully grasp," Reuters reported Orbán told his jubilant supporters at the Fidesz party headquarters.  

The PM believes the electoral results are an endorsement of the steps taken by his government aimed at creating jobs, supporting families, and fighting for Hungarian national sovereignty, claiming that voters have said "no" to hatred and to leaving the European Union. "They have confirmed that Hungary’s place is in the EU, but only if she has a strong national government," Orbán said after receiving congratulations on his victory from European Commission head José Manuel Barroso.   

Fidesz ran in alliance with its coalition partner, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP). "On the basis of the differences [between the parties] we can now say with certainty that for the first time since the regime transformed here, a center-right government will be in charge for two consecutive terms," Hungarian MP Gergely Gulyás (Fidesz) told Reuters. 

New voting rules meant that Hungarian voters elected 106 MPs in one-seat districts (previously there were 176) through majority voting and 93 MPs through proportional voting based on the parties’ statewide candidate lists. The new Hungarian Parliament will have 199 MPs instead of the previous 386.

Fidesz is facing criticism for having created these new electoral districts with an eye to the ruling party’s strength in specific regions. "The voting system is unfair. It’s as if Fidesz had to run a 100-meter dash while the opposition had to run a 400-meter obstacle course," Agence France-Presse reports former Hungarian PM Gordon Bajnai, a left-wing politician, as saying.