Hungary - Viktor Orban Sailing Smoothly To Another Election Win

Hungary goes to the polls today, and although many European leaders are critical of Prime Minister Orban’s policies, on election day they are probably all a tad jealous of the Budapest frontman. According to the latest polls, Mr Orban is some 20 to 30 points ahead of his nearest rivals with the only real question remaining whether he will keep his super-majority of two-thirds of all seats in the parliament or not.

In an election campaign which only seemed to revolve around immigration, Mr Orban has once again proven himself a champion of the Hungarian people, his base stronger than ever and his party looking to be rewarded for their stiff opposition to European dictates from Brussels.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&#39;Hungary is a BIGGER threat to EU than Brexit&#39; How Orban&#39;s victory could TOPPLE Brussels <a href="https://t.co/s4Q27yLOV8">https://t.co/s4Q27yLOV8</a></p>&mdash; Voice of Europe (@V_of_Europe) <a href="https://twitter.com/V_of_Europe/status/982646349681356800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2018</a></blockquote>

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During his last rally on Friday, he said: "Migration is like rust that slowly but surely would consume Hungary."

Most Hungarians tend to agree. In the first hours of voting, turnout was already at the highest level since the 1998 election.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hungary&#39;s Orban tells Germany:&#39;You wanted the migrants,we didn&#39;t&#39;<br><br>In an interview with the German daily Bild, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban defended his country&#39;s refusal of an EU-wide refugee resettlement quota, saying that he believed refugees are &quot;Muslim invaders.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/0MaW3Ftsnc">pic.twitter.com/0MaW3Ftsnc</a></p>&mdash; Crockett (@wisconsinGodsPl) <a href="https://twitter.com/wisconsinGodsPl/status/982787913699266560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Thanks to the Hungarian electoral system rules, Mr Orban’s Fidesz party does not necessarily need the most votes, a strong parliamentary majority comes either way for the biggest party, and his is on track to remain just that.

According to the latest polls, Mr Orban’s Fidesz party is set to garner about 50% of all votes, with his coalition partner, the far-right Jobbik party on course for 18% of the votes. If this result holds, Mr Orban will indeed continue to enjoy his supermajority in parliament.

Source:

https://www.ft.com/content/8c3bc27a-3ad6-11e8-b9f9-de94fa33a81e