Hungary's hardline PM Viktor Orban wins new term

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban greets his supporters in Budapest, Hungary. Photo / AP

Viktor Orban, Hungary's staunchly anti-migrant Prime Minister, was re-elected after his right-wing Fidesz Party was projected to win a supermajority of seats in Hungary's Parliament.

The resounding victory will likely permit Orban's Government to continue with democratic backsliding.

Orban's party was expected to win 133 of 199 seats in Parliament, according to the first results from Hungary's national election website, with more than 90 per cent of votes tallied. That barely gives him the two-thirds majority he needs to rewrite the constitution as he sees fit.

The largest opposition group was projected to be the far-right Jobbik party, which shares much of Fidesz's anti-immigrant platform and was expected to claim 26 seats.

The vote - easily the most consequential since Hungary's post-communist transition - was widely seen as a reflection on the state of democracy and the rule of law in a European Union member state that in recent years has been sliding toward autocracy.

The result - coming in an election with high turnout - squashed any hopes of an opposition presence in a country that has essentially been a one-party state for nearly a decade.

In the past eight years in power, Orban - in two consecutive terms as Prime Minister - has enacted drastic changes to Hungary's constitution, attempted to dismantle its system of checks and balances, and sought to silence his critics, notably in the Hungarian media.

Orban appeared in Budapest to declare victory. "There is a big battle behind us," he said, speaking at the Fidesz campaign headquarters. "We have won. Today Hungary had a decisive victory. We have the chance to defend Hungary."

The election was a crushing defeat for left-leaning opposition leaders, who had rallied in recent weeks to try to curb Orban's power in what polls had long predicted would be a win for a third consecutive term in power. They had hoped for a larger presence in Parliament, which might then halt Orban's aim of transforming Hungary into what he has called an "illiberal democracy."

Gabor Csorba, 48, a church finance officer, said that he did not approve of aspects of Orban's personality and rhetoric but that he would vote for him. "It's better this kind of society will continue or else there will be instability ahead," he said.