Viktor Orban, Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister and a longtime ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, won Sunday’s national elections, claiming a mandate for a fourth term.
His right-wing Fidesz party won 53.1% of votes with 98% of the count complete, preliminary results show. The opposition alliance led by Peter Marki-Zay was far behind with only 35% of the vote.
In his victory speech, Orban criticized Brussels bureaucrats and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling them “opponents.” “This was a huge victory,” Orban told jubilant supporters in the capital Budapest late on Sunday.
“The entire world can see that our brand of Christian democratic, conservative, patriotic politics has won,” he told the crowd. “We are sending Europe a message that this is not the past – this is the future.”
Orban also made reference to criticism directed at him by Zelensky, who has repeatedly challenged the Hungarian leader over a perceived lack of support and an unwillingness to condemn his close ally Vladimir Putin in person for the invasion of Ukraine.
“This victory is one to remember, maybe even for the rest of our lives, because we had the biggest [range of opponents to] overpower. The left at home, the international left, the bureaucrats in Brussels, the money of the Soros empire, the international media and even the Ukrainian president in the end,” he said.
Hungary under Orban forges close ties to Putin’s Russia
Hungary shares a border with Ukraine and has taken in more than half a million refugees so far. Orban insists that by helping the people, but refusing to supply weapons to Ukraine, he is keeping Hungary out of the war.
Orban, 58, has had a fraught relationship with the EU, which considers that Fidesz has undermined Hungary’s democratic institutions.
In his 12 years in power, Orban has rewritten the constitution, filled the top courts with his appointees, and changed the electoral system to his advantage.
Orban, who has forged a close relationship with the Russian leader and met him 12 times, retooled his election campaign after the outbreak of war on 24 February to position Fidesz as the “peace” party, vowing to stay out of a conflict that he insisted had nothing to do with Hungary.
He said reducing energy dependency on Russia – which provides an estimated 90% of its gas and 65% of its oil – would wreck Hungary’s economy.
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