Orbán declares ‘huge victory’

“We’ve secured a huge victory, so big in fact that you can see it from the Moon, and certainly from Brussels,” Orbán said at the Balna Centre on the Pest side of the River Danube, the site where Fidesz awaited the results.

“We’re looking pretty good; we’re looking better and better, perhaps we’ve never looked as good as we’re looking tonight,” he said.

Orbán also reassured ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region that the motherland was “with them”, telling them to “hang in there” and not to be afraid.

Salvini first to hail Fidesz win

Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s League party, congratulated Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on his election win in a Facebook post late on Sunday.

“Bravo Viktor! Alone against everyone, attacked by the fanatics of uniform thinking, threatened by those wanting to eradicate the Judeo-Christian roots of Europe, slandered by those wanting to eliminate values such as the family, security, merit, development, solidarity and freedomŁ; you won again thanks to what everyone else is lacking: the people’s love and support. Go Viktor, and respect to the free Hungarian people,” Salvini said.

The League party said Salvini also sent a personal letter to Orbán.

Projected share of parliamentary seats with 81.29 percent of votes counted

Hungary’s Fidesz-led alliance, which has held office for the past twelve years, appears set for a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament with 81.29 percent of the votes counted:

Projected share of party parliamentary seats according to National Election Office data:

1. FIDESZ-KDNP: individual constituencies: 88, national list: 47, total: 135, share of parliamentary seats: 67.84 percent.

2. UNITED OPPOSITION: individual constituencies: 18, national list: 39, total: 57, share of parliamentary seats: 28.64 percent.

3. MI HAZANK: individual constituencies: 0, national list: 7, total: 7, share of parliamentary seats: 3.52 percent.

Marki-Zay concedes victory to Fidesz

Peter Marki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, on Sunday evening conceded victory in the general election to Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party.

“I am stunned just like everyone else,” Marki-Zay said at the City Park Ice Rink in Budapest. “I don’t want to hide my disappointment and my sadness; we would never have thought that this would be the outcome.”

Marki-Zay said the conditions in the election were “extremely unequal”, adding, however, that the opposition was not disputing the result, “only that it was a democratic and free race”. He said he and his team had chosen to embark on their campaign because they had trusted that “we could still win the election in such uneven conditions, with our feet tied, with a spear in our backs, wounded and mocked.”

Marki-Zay said Fidesz had won the election not through honesty and honour but through “propaganda”.  

“Although the thought of leaving the country may occur to every sober-minded Hungarian because the country is not headed in the right direction, we’re staying here with you,” he said on behalf of his family.    

“We will continue the struggle that our conscience and patriotism calls us to,” he said, appealing to his supporters “not to let go of each other’s hands”.

“Our fight was not in vain, since we’ve created a wonderful community which can’t even be bought with propaganda…” Marki-Zay said. He said he and his base would “not give up the fight” as “there will be an even greater need for unity in the difficult times ahead”, adding that they would “stick up for everyone facing persecution”.

“We will restore this country’s honesty and its honour,” Marki-Zay insisted. “We can show that we have reason to be proud to be Hungarian, even in opposition.” He thanked his voters and his campaign’s activists, adding that those who had not voted for them were still their “Hungarian brothers and sisters”. “May God protect Hungary and thank you,” Marki-Zay said, concluding his speech.

Anna Donath, head of the Momentum Movement, asked the opposition activists and supporters present not to give up. “We’re too young to let our futures be stolen,” she said. She said Hungarians would soon have to “face things that no one can endure alone or in a community”. “However much they lie, unbearable times are ahead and this is our future.”

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony, co-leader of the Parbeszed party, said they would “have to finish what we’ve started together”. Karacsony said that “if we’ve taken each other’s hand and taken a step towards each other”, they would have to “preserve what’s left of the homeland”. He said Budapest remained “the island of freedom” and would “continue to fly the flag of freedom and solidarity”.