Hungary's pro-Putin PM Orban captures strong lead in vote

WBBM Newsradio ^ | April 3, 2022 | Associated Press

[Angelino97]

Early results from Hungary’s national election on Sunday showed a strong lead for the right-wing party of pro-Putin nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban as he seeks a fourth consecutive term.

With 43% of votes tallied, Orban’s Fidesz-led coalition had won 57% of the vote while a pro-European opposition coalition, United for Hungary, had 31%, according to the National Election Office.

Although vote counting was still underway, all signs pointed to a clear endorsement for Orban's populist style of governance.

The contest was expected to be the closest since Orban took power in 2010, thanks to Hungary’s six main opposition parties putting aside their ideological differences to form a united front against Fidesz. Voters were electing lawmakers to the country’s 199-seat parliament.

Yet even in his home district, opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay trailed the longtime Fidesz incumbent Janos Lazar by more than 11 points, with 74% of the votes counted there. It was a discouraging sign for the prime ministerial candidate who had promised to end to what he alleges is rampant government corruption and raise living standards by increasing funding to Hungary’s ailing health care and schools.

In a surprise performance, radical right-wing party Our Homeland Movement had garnered more than 6% of the vote, exceeding the 5% threshold needed to gain seats in parliament.

Opposition parties and international observers have noted structural impediments to defeating Orban, highlighting pervasive pro-government bias in the public media, the domination of commercial news outlets by Orban allies and a heavily gerrymandered electoral map.

[Jacob Kell]

The 2011 census stated that Catholics were 39% of Hungary’s population, Protestants were almost 12% and other Christians were 3 1/2%.

[BillyBoy]

Religion in Hungary

Eurobarometer survery of Religion in Hungary as of September 2019 (much more recent than the 2011 census) found that 62% of the country practiced Catholicism, 5% practiced Protestantism, and 8% turned out to be “Other Christians”. Non-religious people made up 20% of the population, Jews 1%, Undeclared 2%, and 2% other religions.

According to the data, the number of people belonging to a religion in Hungary greatly varies depending on the definition of belonging to a religion and the way the question is raised.

In any case, there are far more Catholics than protestants in the country.