Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed a decisive victory in the country’s national election on Sunday, winning a fourth term despite scrutiny over his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo by Zoltan Fischer/Hungarian Prime Minister Office/EPA-EFE
April 3 (UPI) — Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed victory in the country’s national election, winning a fourth term in office on Sunday.
Hungary’s national election board said Sunday evening that Orban’s Fidesz party held a dominant lead over the opposition with 71% of the vote despite Orban facing scrutiny for his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Orban hinted at tensions with the rest of the European Union over the war in his victory speech.
“We have such a victory it can be seen from the moon, but it’s sure that it can be seen from Brussels,” he said.
Orban also made reference to a “huge amount of opponents” including the Hungarian left, “bureaucrats” in the EU, the international media “and the Ukrainian president too.”
Despite the controversy, Fidesz was on pace to increase its parliamentary majority by winning 135 seats on the 199-member parliament, fending off a coalition of six opposition parties that sought to unseat Orban.
The Fidesz lead was so commanding that opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay failed to win his own district.
In a concession speech, Marki-Zay said he was “devastated” and said Orban’s victory was the result of gerrymandering by Fidesz and other changes to the voting system.
“I don’t want to hide my disappointment and my sadness. We never expected this to be the result,” he said. “We knew beforehand that this was going to be an imbalanced fight. Yes, they’ve cheated too. But we’ve also said that since there is no democracy in Hungary and they’ve changed the whole system, the districts.”
