Hungary’s anti-immigration PM basks in election glory

BUDAPEST: Hungary’s antiimmigration prime minister Viktor Orban basked on Monday in a bulldozer election triumph that delighted other nationalists but sent a chill through civil society groups and portended fresh battles with Brussels.

After a campaign centred on resistance to immigration and trumpeting a strong economy, nearcomplete results showed that Orban’s Fidesz party snapped up almost half the vote (48.8 per cent).

This will give it a two-thirds majority in parliament and a legislative carte blanche to pursue Orban’s transformation of the central European country into what he calls an “illiberal democracy”.

Addressing ecstatic, flag-waving supporters in Budapest late on Sunday, Orban said the “destinydeciding victory” setting him up for a third straight term gave Hungarians “the opportunity to defend themselves and to defend Hungary”.

His win, which crushed hopes of an upset by opposition supporters, followed strong election performances from other parties portraying themselves as patriotic and anti-system such as in Italy in March and in Austria and Germany last year.

OSCE monitors said that “xenophobic rhetoric” and “media bias” in the campaign impaired voters’ ability to make a fully informed choice. The public broadcaster “clearly favoured the ruling coalition”.

But congratulations from allies poured in for Orban, long a thorn in the EU’S side, who styles himself as the defender of Christian Europe against the “poison” of immigration and the “globalist elite”.

In Poland, whose government like Budapest has clashed with Brussels over worries about the rule of law, right-wing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wished Orban success “for Hungary and for Europe”.

Poland’s deputy foreign minister said the win confirmed central Europe’s “emancipation” while antimigrant Czech President Milos Zeman’s spokesman hailed “another defeat for the dehumanised politics and hate media”.