Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban |
Even the Conservatives are Socialists
Hungarians handed their maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban another four years in power, election results showed. Meanwhile 20.5% of voters backed a far-right opposition party.
One thing for sure, the true Marxists were defeated, but are the winning "Conservatives" even Conservative?
Conservative Policies - Under Orban's government personal income taxes and household power bills have fallen. That is well and good.
Socialist Policies - In the past four years, Orban's policies have included a nationalization of private pension funds, enacted "crisis taxes" on big business, and a relief scheme for mortgage holders for which the banks, mostly foreign-owned, had to pay.
Basically European politics is schizophrenic. They can't figure out what they believe in.
Orban has clashed repeatedly with the European Union and foreign investors over his unorthodox policies, and after Sunday's win, big businesses were bracing for another term of unpredictable and, for some of them, hostile measures.
But many Hungarians see Orban, a 50-year-old former dissident against Communist rule, as a champion of national interests. They also like the fact that under his government personal income tax and household power bills have fallen.
After 96 percent of the ballots were counted from Sunday's parliamentary vote, an official projection gave Orban's Fidesz party 133 of the 199 seats, guaranteeing that it will form the next government.
That tally also gave Orban's party the two-thirds majority needed for it to change the constitution, but only by one seat, and final results could still push Fidesz back below the threshold.
The same projection gave the Socialist-led leftist alliance 38 seats, while Jobbik was on 23 seats.
Members of the New Hungarian Guard stand at a Jobbik Party rally against a gathering of the World Jewish Congress in Budapest, 4 May 2013. . Movement for a Better Hungary |
The European "Far" Right is on the Move
Because so-called "Conservative" parties in Europe act Socialist you see the voters turning to the far right.
The Jobbik Party performance is being watched closely for clues about how other nationalist right-wing parties, such as France's Front National and the Netherlands' Party for Freedom, will perform in European Parliament elections next month.
In terms of its share of the national vote on party lists, Jobbik won 20.5 percent, up from 15.86 percent of all votes four years ago.
There is no doubt that Jobbik will be among the strongest far-right parties in Europe, which is particularly striking because it is also one of the most extreme of Europe's far-right parties, reports Reuters.
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.
Its leader, Gabor Vona, often works shifts in minimum wage jobs - a waiter, a construction worker - to show he is in touch with ordinary peoples' concerns. A senior party figure in 2012 proposed drawing up lists of Jews in parliament, though he later apologized and said he was misunderstood.
"Jobbik is continuously ... increasing its popularity," Vona told party supporters late on Sunday. "And ahead of the European Parliament elections it is important to make clear that today in the EU Jobbik is the strongest national radical party."
See more at Reuters News
Hungary looks set for more Orbán
The Hungarian National Assembly |
Parties and coalitions | List votes | List % | ±pp swing | List seats | Constituency votes | Constituency seats | Total seats | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség | 2,135,891 | 44.54 | 8.19 | 37 | 2,097,882 | 96 | 133 | 130 | |
Unity Összefogás | 1,246,465 | 25.99 | 6.29 | 28 | 1,273,275 | 10 | 38 | 21 | |
Jobbik Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom | 985,029 | 20.54 | 3.87 | 23 | 967,179 | 0 | 23 | 24 | |
Politics Can Be Different (LMP) Lehet Más a Politika | 252,373 | 5.26 | 2.21 | 5 | 229,747 | 0 | 5 | 11 |
Warning to American Readers
Americans readers - do not be confused. This is called a free election. Some 18 different political parties were on the ballot for the voters of Hungary to consider. Four parties had enough support to win seats in the new parliament.
Meanwhile back in the United States voters have only two parties: a Marxist party and a Socialist-lite party.
(Hungarian parliamentary election, 2014)
The Hungarian Parliament Building Budapest was united from three cities in 1873 and seven years later the Diet resolved to establish a new, representative Parliament Building, expressing the sovereignty of the nation. Construction was started in 1885 and the building was inaugurated on the 1,000th anniversary of the country in 1896, and completed in 1904. . About one thousand people were involved in construction, during which 40 million bricks, half a million precious stones and 40 kilograms (88 lb) of gold were used. used. . Hungarian Parliament Building |
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