2010 Hungarian Parliamentary Election
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Parliamentary elections were held in
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
on 11 and 25 April 2010 to elect the members of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...
. They were the sixth free elections since the end of the communist era. 386 Members of Parliament (MPs) were elected in a combined system of party lists and electoral constituencies. Electoral law in Hungary requires candidates to gather 500 signatures from citizens supporting their candidacy. In the first round of the elections, the
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
party
Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; hu, Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán. It was formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young ...
won the absolute majority of seats, enough to form a government on its own. In the second round, the alliance of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) won enough seats to achieve a two-thirds majority required to modify major laws and the country's constitution.


Background

Fidesz's landslide victory was a result of massive dissatisfaction with the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), which had been in government since 2002. One event that provoked an especially strong backlash was the revelation that the MSZP's Ferenc Gyurcsány, Prime Minister from 2004 to 2009, had admitted in a private speech to party members that he had lied to the general public during the previous election campaign to help his party win re-election. The
Őszöd speech The Őszöd speech ( hu, Őszödi beszéd) was a speech Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány delivered to the 2006 Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) congress in Balatonőszöd. Though the May congress was confidential, Gyurcsány's addre ...
, as it came to be called, surfaced in the press during the autumn of 2006 and resulted in nationwide protests.


Polls

The
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 ...
(MDF) and
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 ...
(SZDSZ) entered a limited electoral cooperation agreement after polls suggested that they would be unlikely to make it into parliament independently. In March 2010, polls also indicated that parliament after the election would likely be dominated by Fidesz, polling at 53–67% that month, followed by either the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party at 12–22% or newcomer
Jobbik The Movement for a Better Hungary ( hu, Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom), commonly known as Jobbik (), is a conservative political party in Hungary. Originating with radical and nationalist roots, at its beginnings, the party described itself ...
(Movement for a Better Hungary) at 11–18%.


Opinion polls


Controversies

The European Parliament elections of 2009 in Hungary saw the rise of right-wing and far-right parties. This trend was covered negatively by some foreign media outlets that feared the rise of intolerance and xenophobia in the country. In addition, Fidesz
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
Oszkár Molnár Oszkár Molnár (born 1 June 1956) is a Hungarian politician and has been member of the National Assembly (MP) between 1998 and 2014. Biography He was born in Sajószentpéter, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, on 1 June 1956. He finished Izsó M ...
was accused of antisemitism after saying "I love Hungary, I love Hungarians, and I prefer Hungarian interests to global financial capital, or Jewish capital, if you like, which wants to devour the whole world, but especially Hungary." He later said that it was only a response to a speech by President of Israel Shimon Peres in which Peres said that his country aims to "colonise" Hungary when he spoke of Israel's investments abroad, and claimed that Israel was "buying out Manhattan, Poland, Hungary...." Jobbik leader
Gábor Vona Gábor Vona (born Gábor Zázrivecz; 20 August 1978) is a Hungarian historian, teacher and former nationalist politician who led the political party Jobbik from 2006 until 2018. He was the party's candidate for the position of prime minister i ...
, also stirred up controversy with allegations of chauvinism by saying "Hungary is for Hungarians" and must be defended against "foreign speculators". Molnár also claimed that the language of instruction in Jerusalem schools was Hungarian and they were "learning the language of their future homeland". His party at the time, Fidesz, did not denounce his statement but simply said it was "embarrassing". Adding that he would not even consider ousting Molnar from his party or parliamentary faction, as the remark "did not violate the party's bylaws". However, in 2010 he was excluded from the Fidesz, due to these remarks. Instead of him, a Lebanese-origin doctor, Pierre Daher became the Fidesz candidate. Molnár also claimed that pregnant
Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
women deliberately try to induce birth defects so they can give birth to "fools to receive higher family subsidies. I have checked this and it’s true; they hit their bellies with a rubber hammer so that they’ll give birth to handicapped kids." In 2011, he denounced Roma women at the Hungarian police authorities. Another Fidesz parliamentarian, Ilona Ékes, wrote to the police to ban a
gay pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
event in Budapest, saying that homosexuality was a mental illness and demonstrators would scandalise people, as they did in previous years, when homosexual activists imitated sexual intercourse on stage and other activists were allegedly blasphemous. According to Ékes, the demonstrations would harm youngsters, whose school season was to start on the same day. A Hungarian analyst was cited as saying Fidesz tolerates such provocative rhetoric from its members because of fears they would vote for Jobbik instead.


Foreign interference

Former Jobbik MEP
Krisztina Morvai Krisztina Morvai (born 22 June 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and nationalist politician. She was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), having been elected on the list of the political party Jobbik – Movement for a Better Hungary in the 200 ...
wrote an open letter to Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, the
United States Ambassador to Hungary This is a list of ambassadors of the United States to Hungary. Until 1867 Hungary had been part of the Austrian Empire, when the empire became Austria-Hungary. Hungary had no separate diplomatic relations with other nations. The United States had ...
, alleging foreign interference after the ambassador visited the headquarters of three major parties but not that of Jobbik.


Results


Party list results by county


Turnout

''All times are
CEST CEST or cest may refer to: * Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone * Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory * Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...
.''


Post-election controversies

Four Jobbik MPs— Gábor Staudt, Gergő Balla, Zsolt Endrésik and Péter Schön—were removed from their committees because they had failed a vetting procedure that asked whether any MP's maintain contact with groups that engage in "activities that deny the basic principles of a state governed by the rule of law." Staudt, a co-founder of the ''
Magyar Gárda Magyar Gárda Mozgalom (English: ''Hungarian Guard Movement'') founded by Magyar Gárda Hagyományőrző és Kulturális Egyesület (English: ''Hungarian Guard Association for Preservation of Traditions and Culture'') was a patriotic-nationalist ...
Society''—that was banned in 2007—had been on the national security committee, while the other three were on the defence and law enforcement committees. Staudt reacted in saying he found the result to be unconstitutional, and that he would file a criminal report with the interior minister against Defence of the Constitution Office director general László Balajti. The four would, however, continue to be MPs.


References


Notes


External links


NSD - European Election Database - Hungary
{{Hungarian elections Elections in Hungary
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
2010 in Hungary