Hungarians handed their maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban another four years in power, election results showed on Monday, while one in every five voters backed a far-right opposition party accused of anti-Semitism. Orban has clashed repeatedly with the European Union and foreign investors over his unorthodox policies, and after Sunday’s win, big businesses were bracing for another term of unpredictable and, for some of them, hostile measures. But many Hungarians see Orban, a 50-year-old former dissident against Communist rule, as a champion of national interests. They also like the fact that under his government personal income tax and household power bills have fallen. After 96 percent of the ballots were counted from Sunday’s parliamentary vote, an official projection gave Orban’s Fidesz party 133 of the 199 seats, guaranteeing that it will form the next government.
That tally also gave Orban’s party the two-thirds majority needed for it to change the constitution, but only by one seat, and final results could still push Fidesz back below the threshold.
The same projection gave the Socialist-led leftist alliance 38 seats, while Jobbik was on 23 seats.
“We have scored … a comprehensive victory, the significance of which we cannot yet fully grasp tonight,” Orban told a jubilant crowd at his party’s election headquarters.
Full Article: Hungary re-elects maverick PM, far-right opposition gains | Reuters.