Hungarian prime minister wins another term
Populist leader known as anti-immigration
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party won Sunday’s parliamentary elections, clinching another term for him after he promised to shield his country’s identity as predominantly white and Christian and rallying populist forces that challenge European Union values.
Orban’s Fidesz party won 134 of parliament’s 199 seats in Sunday’s election, according to results with 75 percent of votes counted, a repeat of the two-thirds majority he won in the country’s previous two elections. His anti-immigration stance and an economic upswing allowed him to overcome rivals who decried the authoritarian approach that’s made Orban a role model for anti-establishment parties in Europe.
The victory gives Orban, 54, a third consecutive term and fourth in all after a stint as prime minister from 1998 to 2002. The mandate is likely to embolden policies that have edged out some foreign-owned companies and allowed a group of oligarchs to take over much of the economy.
During the campaign, Orban pledged to hold opposition parties “morally, politically and legally” responsible for opposing him. That followed reports alleging government corruption that the ruling party has denied. The sources of some of those reports — including a newspaper and news channel owned by a former Orban ally — may be targeted, as well as nongovernmental organizations such as Transparency International, Attila Tibor Nagy of the Center for Fair Political Analysis in Budapest said before the elections.
After building a fence on Hungary’s southern border to keep out refugees, Orban focused his campaign on billionaire George Soros, saying the pro-democracy campaigner led a global network working to spread immigrants to the western world. Orban’s Cabinet vowed to approve a “Stop Soros” package of laws after the election. Soros rejected the accusations, and his Open Society Foundation said the measure would “criminalize” civil society.
In the past four years, Hungary has fallen to 66th place in Transparency International’s annual survey of perceived corruption, the second-worst in the EU, from 48th.
That has done little to dissuade investors, many of whom had rooted for a slim victory by Orban. They said it would ensure policy continuity, including on fiscal discipline. On the other hand, it would deprive him of the two-third “supermajority” mandates he won in 2010 and 2014, which allowed him to change the constitution and undermine democratic institutions, often by appointing trusted allies as heads of formerly independent institutions.