Hungary: Fidesz party wins general elections, Viktor Orban expected to be re-elected PM

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is set to be re-elected and his Fidesz party will hold a two-thirds majority in parliament. Hungarians went to the polls in higher numbers compared to the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party Fidesz came away victorious in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, receiving 48.8 percent of the vote according to preliminary results. With 98 percent of ballots counted, Fidesz has won a two-thirds majority in parliament, with a projected 133 seats of the 199 seats in the chamber, dw.de informs.

Hungary’s Nationalist Jobbik party came in a distant second with roughly 20 percent of the vote and the Socialist Party received 12 percent. Two other parties, the Democratic Coalition and the green Politics Can Be Different parties are expected to surpass the 5 percent threshold and will join the legislative body.

The Fidesz party was seeking its third consecutive governing term with Viktor Orban at the helm. The 54-year-old Hungarian prime minister, the longest-serving Hungarian leader since the fall of communism, led an electoral campaign that positioned him as a defender of Hungary’s Christian culture against Muslim migration.

Orban celebrated his party’s gains in a speech to his supporters, shortly after the preliminary results were announced.