2010-04-14

The first round of parliamentary elections was held on 11 April in Hungary. The undisputed winner was the conservative right-wing coalition Fidesz-KDNP, which won a majority of the seats in parliament. The National Assembly will include socialists, who ruled the country before the elections, the radical right-wing Jobbik and, contrary to expectations, the liberal-green party LMP. In the runoff, Fidesz will try to win a constitutional majority, in which this party led by Viktor Orban is likely to succeed.

In the first round of the elections, Fidesz won 206 of the 386 seats. It received 52.7% of the votes, thus winning 87 seats in multi-member constituencies and 119 seats in single-member constituencies. A runoff will need to be held in the remaining 57 single-member constituencies, in 55 of which Fidesz won in the first round. As expected, the parliament will also consist of socialists with 19.3% support and the radical right-wing party Jobbik (16.7%). A surprisingly good result (7.4%) was achieved by the new party LMP, which took over part of the electorate of the liberal SZDSZ and of the right-wing Democratic Forum. The latter two parties will not be represented in parliament for the first time since 1990. The turnout was 64%.
The runoff scheduled for 25 April will decide on the distribution of the remaining 121 seats. Fidesz is 52 seats short of having a constitutional majority (2/3 of the vote), which it is likely to get, given the results of the first round. This will open the way to a profound reform of the state, including an amendment of the constitution. <boc>

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