Parliamentary elections were held in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

on 8 May 1994, with a second round of voting in 174 of the 176 single member constituencies on 29 May.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An exp ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p899 Nohlen & Stöver, p925 They resulted in the return to power of the

Hungarian Socialist Party The Hungarian Socialist Party ( hu, Magyar Szocialista Párt), commonly known by its acronym MSZP, is a centre-left social-democratic and pro-European political party in Hungary. It was founded on 7 October, 1989 as a post-communist evolution ...

, the former Communist party, under the leadership of

Gyula Horn Gyula János Horn (5 July 1932 – 19 June 2013) was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1994 to 1998. Horn is remembered as the last Communist Minister of Foreign Affairs who played a major role in the demolishi ...

, who became

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

. The Socialists achieved a remarkable revival, winning an overall majority of 209 seats out of 386, up from 33 in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

. The governing

Hungarian Democratic Forum The Hungarian Democratic Forum ( hu, Magyar Demokrata Fórum, MDF) was a centre-right political party in Hungary. It had a Hungarian nationalist, national-conservative, Christian-democratic ideology. The party was represented continuously in the ...

was severely defeated, falling from 165 seats to 38 for third place. It was also a disappointment for the principal opposition party of the previous parliament, the

Alliance of Free Democrats The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party ( hu, Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége – a Magyar Liberális Párt, SZDSZ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrat ...

, which failed to capitalize on the government's unpopularity and lost seats. Poor economic performance, apparent government incompetence and a certain nostalgia for the social security of the communist era appear to be the main reasons for the result, together with significant reform of the Socialists' policies, with commitment to the expansion for the market economy and continued compensation for the victims of communism. While the Socialists had enough seats to govern alone, Horn decided to form a coalition with the Free Democrats, giving him a two-thirds majority. This was partly to assuage public concerns inside and outside Hungary over an ex-Communist party with an absolute majority, and partly to get his reform package past his own party's left wing.

Results

Notes

References

{{Hungarian elections Elections in Hungary 1994 elections in Europe 1994 in Hungary