Fidesz will have fewer MEPs in the EP, but Orbán sees the EP election as a victory

Before and during the EP elections, Fidesz openly attacked the Brussels leadership and prepared for a decisive election, but this does not seem to have worked. The numbers show that Fidesz is still the strongest party in Hungary, but it has not delivered the massive change that the Orbán government tried to send out with all its communication, and it has gained two seats less than in 2019. Here is Viktor Orbán’s speech in reaction to yesterday’s results

Orbán: ‘We have won two elections’

Hungary held two elections on Sunday, and “we have won both”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said early on Monday, at the ballot-watching event of the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat parties.

Turnout was around 57 percent at the EP and local elections on Sunday, “another nice record”, Orbán said. “Democracy is alive and well, thank you,” he added.

“Additionally, we have won important victories in a war situation, amid hard battles,” he said.

Orbán congratulated Romania’s ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party for reaching the 5 percent European parliamentary threshold “in a deadly fight”.

Orbán: ‘The people have said they want peace’

The people of Hungary “have sent a clear message that they want peace”, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, leader of the ruling Fidesz party, said, reacting to the results of the European parliamentary election after midnight.