Parliamentary by-election in Hungary: ruling Fidesz loses, left-wing convicted candidate wins easily 🔄

László Varju (Democratic Coalition), the candidate of DK, had an unassailable lead in Sunday’s by-election in Újpest.

The by-election was held in the parliamentary single-member constituency No 11 in Budapest, covering most of Újpest and a small part of Angyalföld. The election had to be called because Varju resigned from his seat on 6 December 2024 after being sentenced to a final fine by the Kúria for hooliganism, assault and disturbing the electoral order.

In 2018, several opposition MPs went to the headquarters of the Hungarian state news agency MTVA to have their 5-point demand read out on air. A serious scuffle broke out between Varju and the guards: four security guards tackled him, his fellow MPs were then knocked to the ground and eventually had to leave the public media. The DK politician was convicted of assault and battery in connection with the incident, and of disturbing the electoral order because, according to the court, he had also forced an independent MP to resign in Újpest in 2018.

According to the final turnout figures of the National Election Office (NEC), 24,190 out of 73,241 people on the electoral roll turned out to vote, representing a 33.03% turnout. This would have been a low turnout for a normal parliamentary election, but it is average for the period.

Varju beat the Fidesz candidate running against him in Újpest-Angyalföld in both 2018 and 2022, most recently as a joint opposition candidate. This time no opposition parties other than the Democratic Coalition ran, helping the left-wing party. The order of the three most important candidates in the election, with 98.59% of the votes processed, was as follows:

• László Varju (DK): 12 270 votes, 51.92%;
• Zsolt Renge (Fidesz-KDNP): 8 013 votes, 33.9%;
• Csaba Balog (Mi Hazánk): 1 461 votes, 6.18%;

This was the last by-election until 2026, as the year before the general parliamentary elections, according to the electoral law, such elections cannot be held. It was also the last parliamentary election not to be held on the basis of the district boundaries redrawn by Fidesz at the end of last year. An early parliamentary election was held in mid-January this year in the Tolna 02 constituency, centred in Dombóvár. There, Krisztina Csibi (Fidesz) won easily. Péter Magyar announced before the election in Tolna 02 that the Tisza Party would not run a candidate in that or any other mid-term election this term.