Hungary’s firebrand PM set for third term after anti-migrant campaign

HUNGARY’S nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban was set to win a third consecutive term last night after the country voted in record numbers.

But the high turnout led opposition parties to believe they had stopped Mr Orban’s right-wing party, Fidesz, from regaining the ‘supermajority’ that had allowed it to pass controversial laws.

This two-thirds control of the 199-seat parliament had previously seen Mr Orban implement tough anti-migrant policies, as well as putting pressure on the judiciary, political opposition and the Press. Before the vote, Fidesz was polling at 0 points or more ahead of the far-Right Jobbik party and the centre-Left Socialists.

Opposition parties believed the 68 per cent voter turnout – nine points higher than the last election in 014 – would scupper Mr Orban’s hopes of regaining a supermajority that would effectively allow him to pass laws like a dictator.

Mr Orban has campaigned heavily on his unyielding anti-migration policies. He claims the opposition is collaborating with the UN, the EU and philanthropist George Soros to turn Hungary into an ‘immigrant country’, threatening its security and Christian identity.

The firebrand leader refused to publicly debate with opponents during the campaign or talk to the independent media. At his final rally on Friday he said: ‘Migration is like rust that slowly but surely would consume Hungary.’

Under Mr Orban, Hungary built a fence along its borders with Serbia and Croatia in 015 to stop migrants. In February the UN’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, accused Mr Orban of outright xenophobia and racism.