Hungarian election: Viktor Orbán wins second term as Jobbik support soars

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/06/hungary-election-viktor-orban-fidesz-party-jobbik

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Hungarians handed prime minister Viktor Orbán another four years in power in Sunday's parliamentary election, while about one in every five voters backed Jobbik, the far-right opposition party accused of antisemitism.

Orbán has clashed repeatedly with the EU and foreign investors over his maverick policies, but many Hungarians regard the 50-year-old former dissident against communist rule as a champion of national interests. Under his government, personal income tax and household power bills have fallen.

After 71% of the ballots were counted, election officials projected Orbán's Fidesz party would win 135 of the 199 seats in parliament – passing the two-thirds threshold needed for his party to unilaterally change the constitution.

In the past four years, Orbán's policies have included a nationalisation of private pension funds, swingeing "crisis taxes" on big business and a relief scheme for mortgage holders for which the banks, mostly foreign-owned, had to pay.

The socialist-led leftist alliance was projected to win 39 seats, with 25 going to Jobbik, whose share of the national vote on party lists rose from 15.9% four years ago to 21.25%.

Cas Mudde, assistant professor at the School for Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia, said Jobbik had achieved the strongest showing in the past few years for any far-right party in the EU and that the only far-right party on the continent that had performed better was Switzerland's People's party which won 26.6% of the vote.

Jobbik has pledged to create jobs, be tough on crime, renegotiate state debt and hold a referendum on EU membership. While it denies being racist, it provides a lightning rod for suspicion among some Hungarians towards the Roma and Jews.

"I'm sure we'll surprise everyone," Jobbik leader Gabor Vona said in his home town of Gyongyos earlier on Sunday after casting his vote accompanied by his wife and son.

"We can now say for certain that for the first time since the change of regime, a centre-right government will govern for two successive terms," said Fidesz politician Gergely Gulyas, referring to the collapse of communist rule in 1989.