United for Hungary, a coalition of opposition parties which had harboured high hopes of unseating Viktor Orbán’s government by joining together, fell well short of a mandate to govern. Hitherto non-parliamentary parties, the radical Mi Hazánk (My Homeland), and the liberal Momentum Movement, which campaigned as part of United for Hungary, both crossed the 5% threshold for seats in parliament, with the radical party notching up seven mandates. Whereas the opposition performed strongly in Budapest, capturing 16 out of 18 districts, Fidesz painted most of the election map in its party colour, orange, with the exception of 18 individual consistencies out of a total of 106.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared a “huge victory”. “We’ve secured a huge victory, so big in fact that you can see it from the Moon, and certainly from Brussels,” Orbán said. Péter Márki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, conceded to Fidesz. “I’m stunned just like everyone else,” Márki-Zay said.
hungarymatters.hu
