Orban Scores Crushing Hungarian Win in Boost to EU Populists

(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban scored a crushing election victory to clinch a fourth term, in a boost to populist forces that are challenging the European Union’s multi-cultural, democratic values.

Orban’s Fidesz party was on track to repeat the two-thirds majority it won in the previous two elections, giving it limitless power to change laws. Driven by an unbridled anti-refugee campaign, he outperformed his own party’s stated expectation and shattered hopes of a potential upset among the fractured opposition, which has decried his government’s authoritarian tilt. Anti-establishment and euroskeptic parties from Poland to France hailed the result.

“We want to call out what’s ailing this continent,” Orban told Echo TV after claiming victory late Sunday. “We don’t want to go against Europe and the EU, we want Europe and the EU to be strong and successful. But before that we need to be honest about what’s hurting us.”

The win opens the way for Orban, 54, to become Hungary’s longest-serving prime minister and, if he finishes his term, to rule the country of 10 million for half of its post-communist existence. A supermajority may embolden policies that have included cracking down on civil society, squeezing media and the courts, and haranguing his peers with anti-Muslim speeches that have made Orban the black sheep of Europe.

“A big and clear victory for Viktor Orban in Hungary: the change of values and the mass immigration extolled by the EU have again been rejected,” French National Front leader Marine Le Pen said in a tweet Monday.

Fidesz won 133 of parliament’s 199 seats, according to results with almost 99 percent of votes counted, the same as in 2014. Defeated leaders from across the opposition offered to resign, including Gabor Vona of the runner-up Jobbik party and the leadership board of the Socialist party.

Orban’s warning that Muslim immigrants would “overrun” Europe follows populist gains in the past year by groups including Austria’s Freedom Party and the League and the Five Star Movement in Italy. Hungary, like its other central European peers, has no significant Muslim or refugee population. The European Parliament is set to vote later this year on whether it should strip Budapest of its EU voting rights over backsliding on democracy.

Orban, who is one of the EU’s strongest supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also pledged to hold opposition parties “morally, politically and legally” responsible, following reports from media outlets and non-government organizations alleging state graft. While the ruling party has denied the accusations, Hungary tumbled to 66th place in Transparency International’s annual survey of perceived corruption in the past four years, from 48th, the second-worst in the EU.

‘Our World’

“The path to reform is never easy,” Polish Premier Mateusz Morawiecki, who has spoken of his dream to “re-Christianize” the EU, said on Twitter. “Support from a majority of society shows that the effort makes sense.”

After building a fence on Hungary’s southern border to keep out refugees, Orban focused his campaign on billionaire George Soros, saying the pro-democracy campaigner led a global network working to let immigrants take over the West. Orban’s cabinet has vowed to approve a “Stop Soros” legislation package after the election. Soros rejects the accusations and his Open Society Foundation said the measures would “criminalize” civil society.

“We want Hungary to remain a Hungarian country,” Orban said. “This is our world, our culture, our lifestyle. These are our life principles. We want to defend these and we don’t want others to change them.”

That has done little to dissuade investors, with bonds rebounding and the forint showing modest gains against the euro on Monday. Still, many had rooted for only a slim Orban victory in the hope it would lead to economic stability. A supermajority, which will allow him to change the constitution, may encourage him to deepen his conflicts with his European peers and further overhaul Hungary’s democratic institutions.

“The margin of the victory is a potential source of concern,” said Adam Bakos, who manages 2.5 billion euros ($3.1 billion) as head of fixed income at Aegon NV. “It opens the way to clashes between the government and the EU.”

--With assistance from Gabriella Lovas Konrad Krasuski and Helene Fouquet

To contact the reporters on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net, Marton Eder in Budapest at meder4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andras Gergely

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.