Magyar’s huge majority is even bigger

Peter Magyar’s Tisza, winner of the Hungarian elections, increased its parliamentary supermajority to 141 seats out of a total of 199, after counting postal votes, votes in diplomatic missions abroad and transferred votes, the electoral office announced on Saturday.

In last Sunday’s elections, the center-right party Tisza had already obtained one, putting an end to 16 years of rule by the far-right prime minister Viktor Orbánwhich had become a model for many conservative leaders across the West.

Orbán quickly conceded defeat after Peter Hungarian unexpectedly ensured a significant majority of the vote, after a record turnout — a result that could allow him to reshape Orbán’s contested rule of law reforms.

“An unprecedented majorityan unprecedented mandate and, at the same time, a responsibility”, declared Magyar at the time, in a statement about the final result of the electoral act.

A preliminary count had pegged the number of Tisza deputies at 138, already surpassing a two-thirds majority that Magyar needed to reverse Orbán’s constitutional review and combat corruption. The final vote count has now increased the number of Tisza mandates to 141.

Orbán’s Fidesz, which had won 87 of the 106 single-member districts in the 2022 elections, won just 10 districts in this Sunday’s elections, leaving the party with just 52 deputies in parliament.

Magyar’s victory led to a appreciation of Hungarian assetsfueled by the expectation of a , worn down by years of conflict under Orbán’s leadershipand the possible release of billions of euros in European funds suspended due to reforms that Brussels considers harmful to democracy.

But while an unlocking of EU funds could stimulate investment and reduce sovereign risk premiums, the impact on growth “will materialize mainly in the medium term“, considers the analyst Liam Peachfrom Capital Economics, in a note cited by the agency.

“In the short term, the outlook continues to be shaped by external factors, namely the conflict with Iran, and by internal budgetary policy”, adds the analyst.

Magyar committed to launching a vast anti-corruption campaign after the inauguration, which will take place on the 9th or 10th of May, as part of broader efforts to guarantee the release of European funds and relaunch an economy that has been close to stagnation for the past three years.

Orbán has systematically denied any wrongdoing and stated that Hungary was no more corrupt than other countries Europeans.

In an interview on Thursday, Hungary’s hitherto prime minister acknowledged that the news published in the country’s media about huge fortunes accumulated by nearby businessmen of Fidesz probably contributed to his defeat, but he did not comment on the veracity of these reports.