Hungary PM Orban expected to win third term in critical polls

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban launched a last-ditch effort to mobilize supporters on Sunday as interim turnout in the parliamentary election reached its highest since 2002, a vote that consigned him to eight years in opposition.

After an acrimonious campaign in which right-wing nationalist Orban projected himself as a savior of Hungary’s Christian culture against Muslim migration into Europe, all opinion polls put his Fidesz party well ahead.

A strong victory could embolden him to put more muscle into a Central European alliance against the European Union’s migration policies. Orban, Hungary’s longest-serving post-communist premier, opposes deeper integration of the bloc.

Voter turnout in Hungary’s parliamentary election reached 53.64 percent by 13:00 GMT on Sunday, a higher interim tally than in 2002, when turnout in the second round of that election was 53.59 percent, National Election Office data showed.

Reuters correspondents saw long lines of voters at several polling stations. Some pollsters said voter turnout above 70 percent could signal that the opposition was mobilizing supporters efficiently, which may cause Fidesz to lose its parliamentary majority.

Orban has far-right admirers across Europe who like his tough line on migrants and a landslide win would show his decision to run a singleissue campaign, arguing migration posed a security threat, had paid off.

Critics say Orban has put Hungary on an increasingly authoritarian path and his stance on immigration has fuelled xenophobia.

After casting his vote in a wealthy district of Budapest, Orban said: “From here I will go and take part in mobilizing voters... I am asking everyone to take part in the election.”

Asked by journalists if he was fighting the European Union, Orban said: “The EU is not in Brussels. The EU is in Berlin, in Budapest, in Prague and in Bucharest.”

He reiterated he would stand up for Hungary’s interests and said Hungary was a loyal member of international organizations. “We love our country and we are fighting for our country.”

Orban posted several updates on his Facebook page on Sunday, the latest showing him campaigning in a Budapest district.

A strong win for Orban would also boost other right-wing nationalists in Central Europe, in Poland and in neighboring Austria, and expose cracks in the 28-nation EU.