Párbeszéd proposes cancelling Aug 20 fireworks in Budapest
Opposition Párbeszed proposes cancelling this year’s fireworks display closing out the August 20 national holiday celebrations in Budapest, the party’s spokesman said on Thursday.
“The cost of the fireworks is being kept secret, but what we do know is that last year’s display cost at least 12 billion forints (EUR 30m),” Richárd Barabás told an online press conference.
Read alsoThe most memorable moments of the August 20 celebration – PHOTOS, VIDEOS
He said the government should not spend money “on silly things” in the current situation when “it has made the lives of 400,000 small business tax payers difficult” and people across the board were affected by high inflation and rising energy prices.
Barabás, who is deputy mayor of a Budapest district, said large cities like Miskolc, Pécs, Székesfehérvár, Szombathely and other smaller cities have decided to cancel their August 20 fireworks shows.
Budapest mayor Karácsony is no longer co-leader of Párbeszéd party
Opposition party Párbeszéd elected lawmaker Rebeka Szabó and parliamentary group leader Bence Tordai its co-leaders at a congress on Sunday.
The former co-leaders, Gergely Karácsony, who is the mayor of Budapest, and Tímea Szabó, an MP, did not run for the posts again. At a press conference after the vote, Szabó said the congress affirmed the party credo focussing on involvement with sustainability and environmental issues. Everybody has a right to healthy food, clean air and drinking water, and a secure and healthy environment in which to live, she added.
She said Parbeszed is working to build a “green Hungary” and advocating for a “green movement”. She added that a stand must be taken against “rampant capitalism” that “exploits” workers, while ensuring equal access to health care and education.
Problems faced by women need to be addressed, as do equal rights for the Roma and the LGBTQ community, she said. Tordai said party leaders would be tasked with strengthening Párbeszéd as a party in the coming two years.
He added that Karácsony would head a working group preparing the party for the 2024 municipal elections and Tímea Szabó would return to parliament as party group leader in the autumn session.
Read alsoEverything to know about the prices of Budapest’s beaches and baths
Párbeszéd urges government to do all it can to cut greenhouse gas emissions
The opposition Párbeszéd party has called on the government to do everything possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Párbeszéd has submitted an amendment proposal to the draft budget that would allocate more than 3 billion forints (EUR 7.6m) towards green goals, lawmaker Rebeka Szabó told an online press conference.
She said man-induced climate change was the reason why heat records kept being broken.
Párbeszéd wants the government to spend more on the insulation of buildings so that they do not absorb too much heat, Szabó said. Having air conditioners running all the time is not the solution because when they are on they are “heating the street”, she added.
Szabó said health institutions, hospitals and operating rooms specifically should all have air conditioning to limit the spread of pathogens.
Meanwhile, she called on the government not to build over public parks but to support them.
Local councils need state resources, “not tax revenue cuts” to perform their duties, such as the operation of public wells, distributing water and looking after the elderly, she said.
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Are most Hungarians dissatisfied with the opposition? – poll
Roughly one-third of Hungary’s opposition voters are uncommitted to any party, the daily Magyar Nemzet said on Tuesday, citing a fresh poll by the Nézőpont Institute.
According to the pollster, an election held this Sunday would be won by the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance with 55 percent of the vote, with just three opposition parties clearing the threshold for seats in parliament.
The leftist Democratic Coalition and radical Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) would each get 6 percent of the vote, while the satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party would have 5 percent.
Conservative Jobbik and the liberal Momentum Movement would both fail to secure parliamentary seats, ending up with just 4 percent each. The Socialist Party, green LMP and the small liberal Párbeszéd party would receive 1 percent each, according to the poll.
Nézőpont said that though 12 percent of voters are critical of the prime minister, they would not vote for any of the opposition parties, either. The pollster added that nearly one-third of opposition voters had become disenchanted with the left-wing parties.
Magyar Nemzet noted that the ruling parties had also dominated the municipal by-elections held last Sunday. It said Nézőpont’s findings confirmed that whereas support for the ruling parties remains stable, the opposition is not only finding it hard to attract new voters but also to retain existing ones.
As we wrote yesterday, four Budapest constituencies held by-elections on Sunday, with three going to candidates of the ruling party and one to the opposition, details HERE.
LMP official challenges Karácsony’s view on opposition woes
Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, has got his analysis of the opposition’s election woes wrong, according to Péter Ungár, parliamentary leader of the opposition LMP party.
As we wrote earlier today, four Budapest constituencies held by-elections on Sunday, with three going to candidates of the ruling party and one to the opposition, the National Election Office (NVI) said late on Sunday, details HERE.
Commenting on a “disappointing” outcome in Sunday’s by-election, Ungar said on Facebook that whereas Karacsony got it right that voters had punished the opposition for its performance since the April 3 general election, he said the pre-election record of the opposition was hardly brilliant either.
“Given Karácsony’s irredeemable merits in devising the pre-April strategy, he should have allowed his ‘analyst self’ more time to surface before issuing new directives,” Ungár said.
Ungár also disputed Karácsony’s view that voters wanted “much more opposition party unity”, insisting that the opposition had enjoyed one million more votes when there was rivalry between them.
EUR 750m ‘green’ amendments submitted to 2023 budget
Opposition Párbeszéd will submit a 300 billion forint (EUR 748.5m) package of amendments to the 2023 budget bill promoting green programmes, the party’s spokesman said on Saturday.
The package includes 200 billion forints earmarked for an energy efficient modernisation of buildings and 50 billion for water utility upgrade, Richárd Barabás told a press conference. The party proposes allocating 30 billion forints for environmental clean-up projects, he said.
Párbeszéd further proposes setting aside 10 billion forints to support green NGOs, 8 billion for an animal protection fund and 5 billion for the preservation and revival of major lakes, he said.
Featured image: illustration
Read alsoHungarian government plans extremely high tax revenues – who will pay?
Hungarian president to attend Budapest Pride?
The opposition Párbeszéd party has asked President of the Republic Katalin Novák to attend one of the events forming a part of this year’s Pride march and festival of the Hungarian LGBTQ+ community.
Párbeszéd spokesman Richárd Barabás told an online press briefing on Friday that “the president has talked so much about striving to represent the whole nation and demonstrate unity … it would help heal the country’s wounds if she honoured a Pride event with her attendance.”
Párbeszéd “believes in love and freedom”,
and will stand up for “straight and LGBTQ people alike”, Barabás said.
Read alsoHungary’s President revealed whether she would visit Kyiv, Moscow
Teachers’ Day: infinite party promises but salaries are very low
The co-ruling Christian Democrats (KDNP) said in a statement on Sunday, Teachers’ Day, that teachers “hold Hungary’s future in their hands” and “we are grateful to all those who educate our youth in kindergartens and schools.”
Families are in the focus of KDNP’s policy, the statement signed by group leader István Simicskó said, adding that “the future of our homeland and our nation rests on the young generation raised by those families”. Teachers have a huge responsibility in “what kind of people our children and grandchildren will grow up to be,” it said.
Parties of the opposition also thanked teachers for their work, but protested low pay in schools and recent restrictions concerning the rights of teachers to strike.
The Democratic Coalition (DK) said in a statement:
“We should not forget how much we owe teachers whose efforts [Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán’s inhumane system
has rewarded with a successive curbing of their rights, humiliatingly low salaries, an incredible workload and degrading Teachers’ Day benefits in the past 12 years”.
The Párbeszéd party demanded an instant pay rise and benefits for teachers. In a statement, the party noted the high rate of teachers quitting their jobs, and insisted it was “the last chance to reverse the drastic deterioration of the quality of public education”. Párbeszéd will appeal to the Constitutional Court against recent legislation seen as “shockingly” curbing teachers’ right to strike, the statement said.
Green LMP said a pay rise to compensate teachers for inflation could no longer be delayed, and insisted that the salaries of young teachers was higher in every other European Union member state except Bulgaria. In their statement, LMP co-leaders Erzsébet Schmuck and Máté Kanász-Nagy demanded a pay hike immediately, as well as the restoration of teachers’ right to strike.
The Socialist Party said it would also appeal to the top court concerning the strike law, and demanded that teachers should get a “radical” increase of at least 50 percent of their salaries, and
each teacher should receive a voucher worth 100,000 forints (EUR 255) as a Teachers’ Day bonus.
Conservative Jobbik MP Koloman Brenner said on Facebook his party was working to ensure that teachers are properly rewarded for their work “morally and financially”.
Read alsoHungary is home to almost 35,600 international students
Orbán cabinet to ease hiring temporary workers from the Far East
Based on a new bill, the government would ease the hiring of temporary workers from the Far East. Therefore, licensed labour-hire agencies would be created in Hungary. Trade unions became enraged because of the bill on the parliament’s desk. They say that the government would like to ease the labour shortage with the help of Far-Eastern guest workers instead of searching for answers to why Hungarian employees quit.
Job in Hungary without a work permit?
According to Népszava, the government would like to open the country’s gates to Vietnamese, Indonesian, Mongolian, and Filipino guest workers. The new bill is part of a “salat bill” including all measures the government would like to introduce after the end of the COVID emergency state. If it passes, third world guest workers could come easier to Hungary with the help of licensed labour-hire agencies. As a result,
they could get a job even without a work permit.
Furthermore, the government decrees would regulate how a labour-hire agency can become licensed.
The idea is not new. Foreign minister Péter Szijjártó thought after the first wave that labour-hire agencies are the key to economic restart. Therefore, they signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Prohumán Ltd. Szijjártó announced last summer that they allowed guest workers to temporarily come to Hungary with the help of licensed labour-hire agencies. Last September, 13 firms could get into that category.
The government wants to deal with labour shortage
The website of Prohumán Ltd, one of the 13 licensed agencies, says that they hire guest workers from 11 non-EU countries: Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Montenegro, and Vietnam.
Zoltán László, a vice-chairman of the Vasas federation of union workers, said that this measure would not solve the labour shortage in Hungary. He added that only some labour-hire agencies would receive good revenues. He said that the government thought a couple of years ago that the Serbian and Ukrainian guest workers would solve the labour shortage. However, too few came, and most went farther West quickly.
The Hungarian processing industry needs 100 thousand workers. However, considerable fluctuation causes the labour shortage in the sector. For example, there was a company putting into work 800 new staff in one year. But in the end, they had fewer employees than at the beginning of the year. That is because new workers quit in less than three months. Some disappear on their first day.
They do not feel OK and do not have a future perspective, Zoltán László said. Their salaries are low ,and they have to do a lot of overwork because of the labour shortage. Some companies expect the same quantity and quality from a newcomer as a veteran. If employers cannot deal with these problems, even Far-Eastern guest workers will quit.
This is how salaries can be kept low?
Some Hungarian workers have already received threats that they could be easily replaced with Asian guest workers who do not talk back. Many Hungarian companies hire their workers because that makes it easier to adapt to demand changes. Such employees are easy to send away: they terminate the contract with the labour-hire agency.
András Jámbor, an opposition MP, says that the government keeps salaries low for the Far-Eastern guest workers. Temporary guest workers weaken other workers’ interest representation, he added. Instead, he would support adult training programs for jobless people in the labour market. Jámbor believes that it is the only way to put an end to the labour shortage.
Opposition Jobbik and Democratic Coalition would delete the paragraphs making temporary guest workers come to Hungary easier. Their reasons are the same as Jámbor’s. DK and Jobbik would instead increase wages.
Read alsoCould Ukrainian refugees solve the Hungarian labour shortage?
Leftist opposition in crisis after the lost election?
After their failure in the April general election, the coalition of opposition parties has fallen apart and, with the exception of the Democratic Coalition led by Ferenc Gyurcsány, the rivalling parties are in a state of crisis, according to an analysis of opinion polls carried out by the Twenty-First Century Institute published on Thursday.
Relative newcomer Momentum has been “struggling with a permanent leadership crisis”, the think-tank said. Founding member and former leader András Fekete-Győr still dominates the party and as group leader “he will put his stamp on the party” while the departure of Anna Donáth as Momentum’s leader “will cause
uncertainty and managerial instability.”
The think-tank cited “information in the opposition press” suggesting an active connection between Gyurcsány’s party and the youthful Momentum movement. Gyurcsány wants to form a DK-Momentum coalition similar to the pre-2010 Socialist-Liberal coalition, it added.
Both LMP and Párbeszéd identify as green parties, the analysis said, but “they can hardly be called real parties as they lack a mass base and are led by media politicians”. LMP’s leadership, it added, was “quite unstable”, while the co-leaders of Párbeszéd indicated after the election that they would not run for office. Due to the uneasy election cooperation between the two green parties, environmental politics and their party identities have faded, the think-tank said.
Regarding the conservative Jobbik party, the Twenty-First Century Institute said the party’s had
lost its nationalist credentials after teaming up with the left wing and taking up its positions on key international issues,
including relations with Hungarians beyond the border and the European Union. “The party is intellectually vacant,” the think-tank said.
Even though Jobbik recorded “its biggest loss” in the general election, Péter Jakab was re-elected leader at a recent party conference by a dwindling number of delegates, indicating a shrinking party organisation and membership. As radical party Mi Hazánk entered parliament for the first time, Jobbik’s room for manoeuvre has narrowed, and it will be impossible for it to return to its former right-wing narrative, the institute said.
Only the Democratic Coalition is stable and free of a leadership crisis,
according to the think-tank. It is the sole party with a stable organisational hinterland and the resources to develop a strong opposition policy, it added.
Read alsoThe new government will be “significantly reshuffled”, says prime minister
Opposition party calls for withdrawal of law on Fudan University campus
Párbeszéd, jointly with other opposition parties, will propose the withdrawal of a law on setting up a campus for China’s Fudan University in Budapest and on raising the term of jobseekers’ allowance to nine months, deputy group leader Tímea Szabó said on Thursday.
Szabó told an online press conference that the state could save the costs of a referendum on these matters if the ruling parties support the opposition proposal.
She said enough signatures had been collected for a referendum to be held on these matters. As a result, the justice committee must prepare a resolution on them on Thursday, which will then have to be included in parliament’s agenda and the president will be tasked with setting a date for the referendum, she added.
Hungary does not need an elite university to be built from a Chinese loan at a cost of 540 billion forints (EUR 1.4bn), which will be mostly attended by foreign students,
Szabó said. Fudan University would also pose a threat to national security, she insisted.
Group leader Bence Tordai said it was up to Fidesz to decide whether nearly 14 billion forints of taxpayers’ money would be “wasted” on a referendum. Instead, they could support the opposition’s proposal and “take the referendum off the agenda”, he added.
The new Parliament is formed in Hungary – UPDATE
Hungary’s lawmakers took their oaths on Monday at the start of the new parliamentary cycle.
The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance has 135 seats in parliament, the Democratic Coalition has 15 seats, while Jobbik, Momentum and the Socialists have 10 each. The radical Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party, which passed the parliamentary threshold for the first time in 2022, has garnered six mandates, as did Párbeszéd. The green LMP party has five seats. The German minority has one seat, and one lawmaker is expected to sit in the 199-member parliament as an independent.
The new parliament’s inaugural session was opened by President János Áder.
Journalists and guests were allowed into Parliament amid tight security measures.
Lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) and Momentum parties left the session immediately after the oath-taking ceremony.
Momentum said on Facebook ahead of the session that its lawmakers had taken an “alternative oath” to serve the “entire society rather than a small privileged elite.”
Ákos Hadházy, who has won a mandate as an independent, did not appear at the ceremony, and is not yet entitled to exercise his rights as a lawmaker.
A body comprising the oldest and youngest members of parliament has found all mandates complies with regulations.
Parliament then certified the mandates unanimously, with 196 votes in favour.
Read this news in Hungarian here: Megalakult az új Országgyűlés | Helló Magyar
Read more news about 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election
UPDATE
Máté Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, reacting to the walk-out by DK and Momentum lawmakers, said
parliament was their “workplace” and they must take their work as seriously as they would in any other workplace.
The work of a lawmaker is regulated by the Hungarian constitution and parliamentary law, Kocsis said on Facebook, adding that a lawmaker who disregards the law and only cares about being paid is unworthy of his or her parliamentary position.
Opposition parties to be present in the first session of the new parliament
It seems the debate about taking part in the parliament’s first session and acknowledging Fidesz’s fourth consecutive landslide victory in the general elections with being present came to an end among the parties of the Hungarian opposition.
Hungarian media reported that even Momentum Movement made it clear yesterday that they would be present at the new parliament’s first session on Monday. Momentum also added that they would swear the oath. That is a prerequisite to becoming a full member of the Hungarian National Assembly. Afterwards, MPs of Momentum will leave the parliament and will not accept positions in the new parliament for the time being.
Only Ákos Hadházy said that he would not go to the first session. Instead, he will sit in Kossuth Square and hold office hours there.
Meanwhile, Jobbik and Párbeszéd set up their parliamentary group yesterday.
Opposition party Jobbik said on Friday that its ten-member parliamentary group has reelected Peter Jakab as its leader. Jakab, who also leads the party itself, called it an honour to have been reinstalled in the post on Facebook.
The opposition Párbeszéd party formed its parliamentary group on Friday, electing Bence Tordai as the group’s interim leader, the party said in a statement. When Tímea Szabó’s term as the party’s co-leader expires in September, she will head the parliamentary group, while Tordai will be her deputy from that time on, the statement said. In the meantime, she will act as his deputy.
Unbelievable! Fidesz lead over opposition widens after election!
The ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat (KDNP) parties would win 56 percent of the votes, while the united opposition would garner 34 percent if the elections were held this Sunday, the daily Magyar Nemzet said citing a recent poll by the Nézőpont Institute.
According to the representative poll conducted over the phone on a sample of 1,000 adults, the radical Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party would again pass the parliamentary threshold with 5 percent of the votes, and the Two-tailed dog party would win 3 percent, Nézőpont said.
Meanwhile, if the parties of the united opposition ran independently, only the Momentum Movement (6 percent) and the Democratic Coalition (5 percent) would make it to parliament, the pollster said. Jobbik would garner 3 percent, while the Socialists and LMP around one percent. Support for an independent Párbeszéd party is negligible, Nézőpont said.
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Hungary election live, Fidesz supermajority again – Latest news, UPDATE
Today is the general election and the child protection referendum in Hungary. PM Orbán believes that voters have to decide whether to enter the Ukrainian war or stay out of it. Meanwhile, the joint opposition says Hungary should decide whether to belong to the East or the West.
Please click for the latest news here: 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election
Jobbik leader blames Márky-Zay for defeat
Prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition Péter Márki-Zay is responsible for the defeat of the opposition, Jobbik leader Péter Jakab said, reacting to the outcome of Sunday’s general election in which Fidesz won a fourth successive supermajority. Read also HERE.
This is Gyurcsány’s opinion on the election defeat
Read here the reaction of Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition, to Sunday’s parliamentary election results, in which Fidesz won a supermajority for the fourth time in a row. Details HERE.
PM Orbán wins fourth successive term with landslide victory!
Hungary’s Fidesz-led alliance, which has held office for the past twelve years, won a fourth successive term in Sunday’s election amid a high turnout of 69.49 percent, and was on course to win 135 seats in the 199-seat parliament, keeping its two-thirds majority, while United for Hungary, a coalition of opposition parties which had harboured high hopes of unseating Viktor Orbán’s government by joining together, fell well short of a mandate to govern. Read details HERE.
Projected share of parliament seats with 81.29 pc 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 HAZÁNK: individual constituencies: 0, national list: 7, total: 7, share of parliamentary seats: 3.52 percent.
Opposition PM candidate Péter Márki-Zay concedes victory to Fidesz
Péter Márki-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,” Márki-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.”
Márki-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”.
Salvini first to hail Orbán 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.
Orban declares ‘huge victory’
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared a “huge victory” for the Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance on Sunday after Hungary’s electorate returned Fidesz to power for another four years. “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.
Results after 57.64 pc of votes counted
Following are the results of votes cast for national party lists in Sunday’s general election with 57.64 percent of the votes counted:
1. FIDESZ-KDNP (55.75 percent, 1,059,445 votes)
2. UNITED OPPOSITION (32.55 percent, 618,523 votes)
3. MI HAZÁNK (6.50 percent, 123,509 votes)
4. TWO-TAILED DOG PARTY (2.88 percent, 54,760 votes)
5. SOLUTION MOVEMENT (1.04 percent, 19,684 votes)
6. PARTY FOR A NORMAL LIFE (0.77 percent, 14,688 votes)
2. UNITED OPPOSITION (32.55 percent, 618,523 votes)
3. MI HAZÁNK (6.50 percent, 123,509 votes)
4. TWO-TAILED DOG PARTY (2.88 percent, 54,760 votes)
5. SOLUTION MOVEMENT (1.04 percent, 19,684 votes)
6. PARTY FOR A NORMAL LIFE (0.77 percent, 14,688 votes)
Latest poll says Orbán will win 122 to 77
Medián, a Hungarian pollster, shared today evening the results of its latest poll. According to them, Fidesz will have 122 mandates (61.3 pc), and the joint opposition will get 77. Fidesz will get 49 pc on its national list, while the joint opposition only 41 pc. Moreover, neither Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland), nor the Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt (Two-Tailed Dog Party) will reach the 5 pc threshold (4.5%, 4.5%) – portfolio.hu reported.
According to MTI, if Medián is right, the leftist Democratic Coalition will win 21 seats, conservative Jobbik 16, the liberal Momentum Movement 15, the Socialists 12, the small liberal Párbeszéd party 8 and green LMP 5 seats.
PM chief of staff: High turnout ‘win for democracy’
Turnout in the 2022 general election is expected to be a whisker below the level of four years ago, the prime minister’s chief of staff has said, adding the high turnout was “a win for democracy”. Speaking after voting officially ended on Sunday, Gergely Gulyás said Hungarian democracy was always robust whenever the “civic-Christian Democrat-centre-right government” held office. The high turnout, he added, gave the new parliament a strong mandate.
Most polling stations have already closed, he said, and the rest were expected to finish processing voting soon after. Gulyás thanked all voters who participated in the election, regardless of their party preference, and the “tens of thousands” of election volunteers. Some 100,000 pro-government activists worked in the past days to mobilise as many voters as possible, he said.
He also thanked the opposition for its proposal to organise the referendum on child protection on the same day as the general election. Regarding the results, Gulyás said the forecasts “give us cause for optimism, but we will only announce the results once every single vote is counted,” he said. Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén thanked Hungarians living beyond the borders for their “faithfulness to the nation”, adding that many more participated in the ballot than four years ago.
Election office expects to start publishing results after 9 pm
National Election Office (NVI) chief Attila Nagy has said the office expects to start publishing preliminary election results after 9 pm. Voting has ended in all localities with just a few people still queueing at some polling stations to cast their ballots, Nagy told at a press conference. He noted that the results announced on Sunday will be considered provisional.
Gerrymandering?
24.hu published today a map showing that a vote in the Fidesz dominated country constituencies counts much less than a vote in the capital or in the municipals. For example, in Tolna county, 60 thousand citizens elect one MP. Meanwhile, that number is almost 100,000 in the constituencies around Budapest.
Voting officially ends (7 pm GMT)
Voting in the general election and the referendum held in Hungary’s 3,154 localities and in Budapest’s 23 districts officially ended on Sunday at 7 pm. People still queuing at voting stations when the polls closed could still cast their vote. Once the voting ends, counting committees immediately start to sort and count the votes – MTI reported.
Voting ended at 86 foreign representations by 7 pm Hungarian time, the National Election Office (NVI) said. Of the 15,548 registered voters, 8,303 (53.4pc) voted in the general election and 8,196 (52.7pc) in the referendum on child protection, the NVI said. The results will only be announced once all constituencies have completed the count.
Voting ended at 86 foreign representations by 7 pm Hungarian time, the National Election Office (NVI) said. Of the 15,548 registered voters, 8,303 (53.4pc) voted in the general election and 8,196 (52.7pc) in the referendum on child protection, the NVI said. The results will only be announced once all constituencies have completed the count.
Here is the badge first voters receive
Turnout (at 6:30 pm GMT)
By 6.30 pm on Sunday, 67.8 percent of Hungary’s voters, 5,216,424 people, had cast their ballots in the general election, the National Election Office (NVI) said. Turnout at 6.30 pm was highest (72.49pc) in Vas County, in western Hungary, and lowest (62.19pc) in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, in the north. Turnout in Budapest was 72.35 percent. Turnout at 6.30 pm in the last general election four years ago was 68.13 percent.
By 6.30 pm on Sunday, 67.06 percent of Hungary’s voters, 5,159,496 people, had cast their ballots in the referendum concerning Hungary’s child-protection law, the National Election Office (NVI) said.
Turnout at 6.30 pm was highest (71.62pc) in Vas County, in western Hungary, and lowest (61.35pc) in Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, in the north. Turnout in Budapest was 71.75 percent.
Strong sentences from leading politicians
PM Viktor Orbán:
“War and peace are at stake in the election“
Joint opposition PM candidate Péter Márki-Zay:
“Each vote counts because a single vote can decide a single election district and a single election district can, therefore, decide the outcome of today’s ballot“
Deputy PM Zsolt Semjén
“Hungarian weapons must not be sent from Hungary and Hungarian soldiers must not fight in this war.“
Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony:
the vote would decide
“whether Hungary is on the right or wrong side of history“.
PM chief of staff Gergely Gulyás
“in Europe, in Germany for example, they want to allow boys or girls as young as 14 to make a decision on gender reassignment….We must firmly reject that and this is the moment to say so.“
Klára Dobrev, former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány’s wife
“we will win and he [Péter Márki-Zay] will be prime minister“
What is happening today?
Today is the general elections in Hungary. Six parties of the opposition from former radical Jobbik to left-liberal Democratic Coalition united to defeat PM Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz and the Christian Democrats. Interestingly, the leftist-liberal coalition is led by a conservative politician, Péter Márki-Zay, who won the opposition primary last autumn and is proud of his Christianity.
Of course, there are further competitors. Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) targets radical, patriotic and vaccine-sceptic voters. Meanwhile, the Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt (Two-Tailed Dog Party), a satirical government-critical party, wants to stand with those, who are fed up with the current political structure. Moreover, there is porn billionaire’s György Gattyán’s Megoldás Mozgalom (Solution Movement), and György Gődény’s virus sceptic Normális Élet Pártja (Normal Life Party).
Furthermore, today is the so-called child protection referendum in Hungary with the following four questions:
- Do you support holding educational events on sexual orientation for minors, in public education institutions without parental consent?
- Do you support the promotion of gender-reassignment treatments for minors?
- Do you support the unrestricted exposure of minors to sexually explicit media content, that may influence their development?
- Do you support showing minors media content on gender-changing procedures?
Read alsoHungary election live, Fidesz supermajority again – Latest news, UPDATE
Budapest mayor: Hungary chooses to be on the right or wrong side of history
Sunday’s parliamentary election is “about war and peace but the question is who supports war”, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said adding that the vote would decide “whether Hungary is on the right or wrong side of history”.
Karácsony spoke to reporters after casting his ballot in Budapest’s 14th district, and said the opposition had delegated vote counters to every polling station to “ensure conditions for a transparent vote”.
The opposition, if it wins the election, will seek to “maintain the voting rights of ethnic Hungarians but implement changes”, Karácsony said, adding that ethnic Hungarians with
a dual citizenship should be ensured a “special mandate”. He added, however, that the citizenship act could only be amended with a two-thirds majority, and “neither side is likely to gain such a majority”.
Karácsony also said that he had cast an invalid vote in the referendum held simultaneously with the election on Hungary’s child protection law, adding that “the so-called” referendum was “more like deceit”.
Ferenc Gyurcsány, head of the opposition Democratic Coalition, and the party’s MEP Klára Dobrev, his wife, cast their ballots in Hungary’s general election in Budapest’s 2nd district on Sunday.
Dobrev told reporters she was convinced that Hungary “now has a democratic majority”, adding that
“if everybody turns up at the polls, we will talk about a government change tomorrow,”
she said.
Dobrev was asked what would happen to Peter Marki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, should the opposition not win the election, and she said “we will win and he will be prime minister”.
Opposition: ‘Orbán has driven Hungary into crisis’
Parties of the united opposition accused Viktor Orbán of “having driven Hungary into a crisis”, in reaction to remarks made by the prime minister in an interview earlier on Friday.
László Varjú, deputy leader of the Democratic Coalition (DK), told a joint online press conference that “Viktor Orbán has admitted that there is, or will soon be, a crisis and if he gets a mandate to continue to govern, he will prepare to take austerity measures”.
Tímea Szabó, co-leader of Párbeszéd, said “the prime minister’s remarks were an open admission that he has driven Hungary into a crisis”. “The prime minister and his Fidesz party have done nothing else over the past twelve years but kept stealing,” she said. Szabó noted
months and years long waiting lists in health care and food price increases by 100-200 forints week after week,
calling Viktor Orban “the one and only danger to Hungary” today.
Máté Kanász-Nagy, co-leader of LMP, said Orban admitted after twelve years of governing that Hungary had faced an economic and social crisis, for which he said the prime minister was to blame.
“Close to 20 percent of Hungary’s population live in poverty while more than 600,000 pensioners receive less than 100,000 forints (EUR 272) per month,”
he said. Once elected, the opposition will double the family allowance and increase pensions gradually to offset inflation, he said.
Dániel Z Kárpát, deputy leader of Jobbik, said Viktor Orbán “has been entirely isolated abroad while he created chaos in government at home”. “The only way out of the economic crisis is an opposition victory,” he said.
In response, Fidesz said if the left wing won the election on April 3 and took power, they would “involve Hungary in the war” in Ukraine and “burden Hungarians with a brutal existential crisis”.
“The left wing has made a pact with the Ukrainians,” the ruling party said in a statement. It said the pact envisaged that Hungary would get involved in the war and impose sanctions on energy deliveries. “As a consequence, Hungary would face an economic, energy and existential crisis,” it said, adding that “Fidesz is the only party that can ensure peace, security and economic stability”.
Read also Hungarian joint opposition is the “unnatural alliance” of fascists and communists?
Opposition to reject election results? Semi-burnt pro-opposition mailed votes found in Romania – UPDATED
Hungarian opposition parties are demanding the immediate destruction of vote-by-mail slips after many of them were found dumped and partially burned in an illegal landfill near Sfantu Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyörgy) in Romania.
This “vile political crime” must not pass without consequences, Párbeszéd spokesman Richárd Barabás told an online press briefing streamed on Facebook. The united opposition is therefore turning to the National Election Committee with a demand that it investigate the case and prevent any further abuses, he added.
Anna Orosz of Momentum said that what had happened to mailed votes in Transylvania and Vojvodina
eroded confidence in fair elections
and put ethnic Hungarians in “a humiliating position”. She said that voting slips were distributed to ethnic Hungarian Vojvodina voters by allies of Fidesz rather than the Serbian Postal Service, and that the ballots were often filled out in their presence.
Dániel Z. Kárpát, Jobbik’s deputy leader, said news from Romania’s Transylvania and Serbia’s Vojvodina region suggested that
Fidesz planned to commit election fraud on Sunday.
Referring to the infamous “blue-ballot fraud” during the 1947 elections, he said “the fact that the one-time young democrat Fidesz politicians had become old Bolsheviks does not authorise them to commit a similar election fraud.”
- Read also: Orbán calls for stopping ‘gender insanity’
Meanwhile, Orosz demanded the government guarantee equal conditions for all Hungarian citizens casting their votes abroad.
Under Hungary’s election rules, citizens with a permanent address in Hungary who are not present in the country on April 3 must travel to the polls at Hungarian embassies and consulates to cast their ballot, and, unlike Hungarians citizens beyond the borders, are not eligible to vote by mail.
Gergely Arató, deputy group leader of the Democratic Coalition, noted that observers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe had qualified the system of mailed votes “unsecure” during previous elections. Fidesz is abusing the ethnic Hungarians’ right to vote and has established a system that facilitates election fraud, he said.
UPDATE (20.10 GMT)
The National Election Office (NVI) said later in the day that
it has filed a criminal complaint concerning the trashed voting slips.
The NVI noted that under the law the slips could be delivered “personally or through people without a (specific) authorisation”, adding that “voters should pay special attention to the confidential nature of the mail and ensure that they safely returned back to the NVI”. Votes can be sent by mail, which is a guarantee of safe delivery, it said.
Here is a video about what happened today in Transylvania:
