Hungary elections
Lajos Garai casts his ballot Sunday in a polling station in the Hungarian region of Hortobagy, east of Budapest. Viktor Orban, the country’s anti-migrant prime minister, was re-elected Sunday when his Fidesz party and an allied group won a supermajority of seats in parliament.
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his “decisive” re-election victory and the supermajority in parliament his right-wing populist party appeared to have won Sunday were “an opportunity to defend Hungary.”
Critics said they feared Orban will use his third consecutive term and the Fidesz party’s two-thirds control of Hungary’s national legislature to intensify his attacks on migration and to strengthen his command of the country’s centralized power structure.
“We created the opportunity for ourselves to defend Hungary,” Orban told a crowd after his win. “A great battle is behind us. We have achieved a decisive victory.”
With 98.5 percent of the votes counted, Fidesz and its small ally, the Christian Democrat party, together had secured 133 of the 199 seats in parliament, the minimum needed for a twothirds majority.
The right-wing nationalist Jobbik party placed second with 26 seats, while a Socialist-led, left-wing coalition came in third with 20 seats.
Orban won his fourth term overall. He first governed in 1998-2002 before returning to power in 2010.