2010 Hungarian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 11 and 25 April 2010 to choose MPs for the National Assembly.[1] They were the sixth free elections since the end of communist era. 386 members of parliament were elected in a combined system of party lists and electoral constituencies.[2] The electoral law does not allow all adult citizens to stand for being elected unless they can validate 500 signatures of other citizens supporting their candidacy.

2010 Hungarian parliamentary election
11 and 25 April 2010
All 386 seats to the Országgyűlés
194 seats needed for a majority
Turnout64.36% and 46.52%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Viktor Orbán Attila Mesterházy
Party Fidesz–KDNP MSZP
Leader since 17 May 2003 10 July 2010
Last election 164 seats, 42.03% 192 seats, 43.21%
Seats won Fidesz 227, KDNP 36
Seat change 99 133
Popular vote 2,706,292 990,428
Percentage 52.73% 19.30%
Swing 10.70% 23.91%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Gábor Vona András Schiffer
Party Jobbik LMP
Leader since 25 November 2006 2009
Last election 0 seats, 2.20% –
Seats won
Seat change 47 New party
Popular vote 855,436 383,876
Percentage 16.67% 7.48%
Swing 14.47% –
Results of the election in all 176 single-member constituencies
Prime Minister before election

Gordon Bajnai
MSZP

 Subsequent Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán
Fidesz

Hungary
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Hungary

In the first round of the elections, the conservative party Fidesz won the absolute majority of seats, enough to form a government on its own. In the second round Fidesz-Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) candidates won enough seats to achieve a two-thirds majority required to modify major laws and the country's constitution.

Background

Fidesz's landslide victory was a result of massive dissatisfaction with and voting in protest against MSZP, the Hungarian Socialist Party, which had been in government since 2002, and it was one event and its consequences especially that provoked resentment: in 2006 Ferenc Gyurcsány, the contemporary Prime Minister of Hungary, delegated by MSZP, made a private speech in front of MSZP party members, in which he, although generally outlining a direction to a new beginning and a moral paradigm change in day-to-day policy making, admitted to having been lying to the general public in different matters through a prolonged time during the campaign running up to the previous election, which had resulted among others in his reelection. This speech surfaced in the press in the Autumn of 2006, and resulted in nationwide protests.

Polls

As polls showed both MDF and SZDSZ would be unlikely to make it into parliament on their own, they have agreed to a limited electoral cooperation.[3] In March 2010, polls also showed that the Hungarian parliament after the election was likely to be completely dominated by Fidesz polling at 53–67% that month, followed by either the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party at 12–22% or newcomer Jobbik (Movement for a Better Hungary) at 11–18%.[4][5]

Opinion polls
Election Party preferences in percentage
(What percentage of eligible voters would have voted for the party)
Agency Date Fidesz MSZP Jobbik MDF LMP SZDSZ KDNP Other
Medián[6] 25 November 2009 66 19 10 2 1 1 n/a 1
Tárki[7] 25 November 2009 68 17 11 1 1 1 2 n/a
Századvég-Forsense[8] 26 November 2009 59 20 12 3 3 1 n/a 3
Tárki[9] 16 December 2009 63 19 12 1 3 1 n/a n/a
Századvég-Forsense[10] 21 December 2009 64 17 9 3 2 0 n/a 4
Medián[11] 25 December 2009 61 23 9 2 1 1 n/a 3
Szonda Ipsos[12] 17 January 2010 63 21 12 2 n/a 1 0 1
Forsense[13] 21 January 2010 59 17 15 5 3 n/a n/a n/a
Medián[14] 21 January 2010 65 19 10 3 1 0 n/a 2
Századvég-Kód[15] 26 January 2010 59 23 10 4 2 1 1 n/a
Tárki[16] 27 January 2010 62 22 11 3 1 1 n/a n/a
Szonda Ipsos[17] 12 February 2010 58 22 14 2 1 1 0 3
Századvég-Kód[18] 18 February 2010 58 23 10 5 3 1 - -
Forsense[19] 22 February 2010 59 18 14 2 5 0 n/a 1
Medián[20] 24 February 2010 63 18 15 2 1 n/a n/a 1
Tárki[21] 3 March 2010 61 22 11 2 3 n/a n/a 1
Szonda Ipsos[22] 11 March 2010 57 20 17 1 3 1 0 1
Nézőpont Intézet[23] 14 March 2010 53 12 12 2 2 n/a n/a 0
Medián[24] 17 March 2010 57 21 18 1 2 n/a n/a 1
Szonda Ipsos[25] 18 March 2010 64 12 13 3 5 n/a n/a 3
Gallup[26] 25 March 2010 67 15 14 1 4 n/a n/a 0
Századvég-Kód[27] 29 March 2010 59 16 17 3 3 n/a n/a n/a

Controversies

Following the EU elections of 2009, trends showed the rise of right-wing parties and particularly the far right. In this vein, the foreign media cited ominous trends concerning the election results. Fidesz Member of Parliament Oszkár Molnár said that: "I love Hungary, I love Hungarians, and I prefer Hungarian interests to global financial capital, or Jewish capital, if you like, which wants to devour the whole world, but especially Hungary." He later said that, it was only a response to a Shimon Peres speech in which Peres said that his country aims to "colonise" Hungary when he spoke of Israel's investments abroad, Peres said that Israel was "buying out Manhattan, Poland, Hungary...."[28][29] Jobbik leader, Gábor Vona, also stirred up controversy with allegations of chauvinism by saying "Hungary is for Hungarians" and must be defended against "foreign speculators". Molnar also claimed that the language of instruction in Jerusalem schools was Hungarian and they were "learning the language of their future homeland". His party at the time, Fidesz, did not denounce his statement but simply said it was "embarrassing". Adding that he would not even consider ousting Molnar from his party or parliamentary faction, as the remark "did not violate the party's bylaws".[30] However, in 2010 he was excluded from the Fidesz, due to these remarks. Instead of him, a Lebanese-origin doctor, Pierre Daher became the Fidesz candidate. Molnár also claimed that pregnant Roma women deliberately try to induce birth defects so they can give birth to "fools to receive higher family subsidies. I have checked this and it’s true; they hit their bellies with a rubber hammer so that they’ll give birth to handicapped kids." In 2011, he denounced Roma women at the Hungarian police authorities.[31]

Another Fidesz parliamentarian, Ilona Ékes, wrote to the police to ban a gay pride event in Budapest, saying that homosexuality was a mental illness and demonstrators would scandalise people, as they did in previous years, when homosexual activists imitated sexual intercourse on stage and other activists were allegedly blasphemous.[32][33] According to Ékes, the demonstrations would harm youngsters, whose school season was to start on the same day.[34]

A Hungarian analyst was cited as saying Fidesz tolerates such provocative rhetoric from its members because of fears they would vote for Jobbik instead.

Foreign interference

Former Jobbik MEP Krisztina Morvai wrote an open letter[35] to Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, the United States ambassador, after her controversial visit to the headquarters of the principal three parties other than Jobbik, while not visiting that of Jobbik, on the night of the election.

Results
2010 Hungarian parliamentary election, first round: First-placed candidates by parties in the single-seat constituencies:
██ = majority won by Fidesz-KDNP(119)
██ = plurality, Fidesz-KDNP (56)
██ = plurality, MSZP (1)
2010 Hungarian parliamentary election, first round: second-place candidates by parties in the single-seat constituencies
██ = MSZP (112)
██ = Jobbik (60)
██ = Somogyért Szövetség (1)
██ = Fidesz-KDNP (1)
██ = independent candidate (2)
Parties Votes Seats
Regional District (round 1) Regional District
(round 1+2)		 National Total
# % # % # ±
Fidesz–KDNP Fidesz 2,703,857 52.7 2,729,327 53.4 87 173 3 227 86
KDNP 36 13
  Hungarian Socialist Party 989,609 19.3 1,087,097 21.3 28 2 29 59 131
  Jobbik 854,745 16.7 835,841 16.4 26 0 21 47 47
  Politics Can Be Different 382,991 7.5 258,078 5.1 5 0 11 16 16
  Hungarian Democratic Forum 136,695 2.7 72,695 1.4 0 0 0 0 11
  Civil Movement 45,863 0.9 34,938 0.7 0 0 0 0 New
  Hungarian Communist Workers' Party 5,606 0.1 5,668 0.1 0 0 0 0 0
  Parties with less than 0.1% of the vote 8,135 0.2 49,634 1.0 0 0 0 0
  Independents 0 0.0 33,702 0.7 0 1 0 1 1
Totals (Turnout 64.4%) 5,127,501 100.0 5,107,471 100.0 146 176 64 386 0

Party list results by county
County[36][37] Fidesz-KDNP MSZP Jobbik LMP MDF Others
Bács-Kiskun 60.45 14.62 15.70 5.58 2.23 1.43
Baranya 54.53 21.07 12.68 8.90 2.83 –
Békés 53.20 18.45 19.21 5.21 2.05 1.89
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén 45.87 18.90 27.20 4.20 1.84 1.98
Budapest 46.32 25.33 10.84 12.81 4.70 –
Csongrád 50.72 20.38 15.93 7.66 2.57 2.75
Fejér 54.16 17.91 16.20 6.96 2.69 2.07
Győr-Moson-Sopron 59.68 16.87 12.57 6.32 2.95 1.60
Hajdú-Bihar 57.92 14.04 18.86 5.05 2.34 1.78
Heves 45.78 21.02 24.97 6.04 2.19 –
Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok 49.42 17.88 24.01 5.65 2.13 0.91
Komárom-Esztergom 51.31 23.39 13.76 8.37 3.17 –
Nógrád 51.84 20.39 20.82 5.57 – 1.37
Pest 52.90 17.58 16.52 8.35 2.75 1.89
Somogy 59.63 19.74 14.23 6.39 – –
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg 53.84 14.84 23.64 2.86 1.81 3.01
Tolna 58.68 17.88 15.44 5.45 2.54 –
Vas 62.77 16.96 12.09 6.37 – 1.81
Veszprém 56.79 18.81 14.66 7.15 2.59 –
Zala 57.21 16.85 16.91 5.80 2.65 0.58
Total 52.73 19.30 16.67 7.48 2.67 1.16

Turnout

All times are CEST.

Round 1[38]
7:009:0011:0013:0015:0017:30Overall
1.61%10.23%24.78%35.88%46.78%59.28%64.36%
Round 2[38]
7:009:0011:0013:0015:0017:30Overall
1.36%8.50%19.37%27.11%33.54%41.89%46.52%

Post-election controversies

Four Jobbik MPs—Gábor Staudt, Gergő Balla, Zsolt Endrésik and Péter Schön—were removed from their committees because they had failed a vetting procedure that asked whether any MP's maintain contact with groups that engage in "activities that deny the basic principles of a state governed by the rule of law." Staudt, a co-founder of the Magyar Gárda Society—that was banned in 2007—had been on the national security committee, while the other three were on the defence and law enforcement committees. Staudt reacted in saying he found the result to be unconstitutional, and that he would file a criminal report with the interior minister against Defence of the Constitution Office director general László Balajti. The four would, however, continue to be MPs.[39]

gollark: I have somewhat wondered if I have that, since I can't focus very well on things, context-switch between tasks a lot, and procrastinate heavily.
gollark: If you just want fairly high altitude, balloons or something?
gollark: Space launches are unfortunately rather expensive still.
gollark: Welcome! You can never escape.
gollark: Infiltrate the FAA and cover up evidence of your crimes.

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