Victor Urban: A clear victory

In front of the jubilant crowd, Orban took to the podium in the capital, Budapest, saying:

We achieved a clear victory, a victory so great that it can be seen from the moon – and certainly from Brussels.

With 63 percent of the votes counted, the ruling coalition Fidesz-KDBN won more than two-thirds of the parliament’s seats – 135 out of 199 – against 57 for the opposition.

Then the right-wing extremist May Haznek (Beitna) won the remaining seven seats.

According to public service channel MTVA, opposition leader Peter Markie Zay is not looking to take a seat in Parliament. With 90 percent counted in his constituency, he received only 40 percent of the vote, compared to 52 percent for Fidesz’s candidate, former chief of staff Janos Lazar.

Marke Zee is the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely and the politician who leads the six-party coalition running under the name United for Hungary (EM) to challenge Orbán and his right-wing party Fidesz, which has ruled Hungary since 2010.

70 percent voted

And although independent observers have warned that the Hungarian electoral system is tilting too much in Orbán’s favour, the opposition appears to have mustered enough support to be on par with the hard-line prime minister – beforehand.

Since Orbán came to power, he has increasingly led Hungary in an authoritarian direction. The country is no longer considered a full democracy by the V-dem Institute, which measures and ranks the situation for global democracies.

Just before the polls closed, nearly 70 percent voted, a high number for the country. More than 200 international observers monitor the elections.