Orban’s ruling party had ‘undue advantage’ in campaign, monitor finds

Ubiquitous government advertising paid by the state gave prime minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party an undue advantage in the run-up to Sunday’s vote, which gave Mr Orban a fourth consecutive term in office, the OSCE election monitor said on Monday.

Nationalist Orban defied polls suggesting a tight race to score another landslide as voters endorsed his vision of a conservative, “illiberal” state and shrugged off concerns over Budapest’s close ties with Moscow. Preliminary results with 99 per cent of votes counted showed Orban’s Fidesz party winning 135 seats in the 199-member parliament, a joint opposition party alliance with 56 seats and the far-right Our Homeland party getting seven seats.

The election process was well run and competitive, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said in a statement. It said, however, the process was marred by what it called the pervasive overlapping of government and ruling coalition’s messaging, as well as by media bias and opaque campaign funding.

Orban's comfortable victory could embolden him in his policy agenda, which critics say amounts to a subversion of democratic norms

“The observation mission noted that widespread government advertisement campaigns paid from the state budget reinforced the main ruling party campaign messages, providing an undue advantage,” it said. “The campaign itself was characterised by a pervasive overlap between the ruling coalition’s campaign messages and the government’s information campaigns, amplifying the advantage of the ruling coalition and blurring the line between state and party.”

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In response to the report, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs tweeted “Whatever credibility OSCE ODIHR may have had left is now gone”, dismissing its criticism of Fidesz’ media advantage.

Mr Orban’s comfortable victory could embolden him in his policy agenda, which critics say amounts to a subversion of democratic norms, media freedom and the rights of minorities, particularly gay people and lesbians.

‘Uneven playing field’

Conceding defeat, opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay (49) said Fidesz’s win was due to what he called its vast propaganda machine, including media dominance.

“I don’t want to hide my disappointment, my sadness ... We knew this would be an uneven playing field,” he said.

“We admit that Fidesz got a huge majority of the votes. But we still dispute whether this election was democratic and free.”

Russia’s February 24th invasion of Ukraine had appeared to upend Mr Orban’s campaign in recent weeks, forcing him into awkward manoeuvring to explain decade-old cosy business relations with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Orban has emerged as a vocal supporter of anti-immigration policies and an opponent of tough energy sanctions against Moscow

But he mounted a successful campaign to persuade his Fidesz party’s core electorate that the six-party opposition alliance of Mr Marki-Zay promising to mend ties with the European Union could lead the country into war, an accusation the opposition denied.

Surrounded by leading party members, a triumphant Mr Orban (58) said Sunday’s victory came against all odds.

“We have scored a victory so big, that it can be seen even from the moon,” he said. “We have defended Hungary’s sovereignty and freedom.”

Anti-immigration

Mr Orban described Brussels bureaucrats and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy as opponents. “We never had so many opponents,” he said. “Brussels bureaucrats ... the international mainstream media, and the Ukrainian president.”

One of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, Mr Orban has emerged as a vocal supporter of anti-immigration policies and an opponent of tough energy sanctions against Moscow.

Critics say he has sought to cement one-party rule by overhauling the constitution, taking control of a majority of media outlets and rejigging election rules, as well as staffing key government posts with loyalists and rewarding businessmen close to Fidesz with lucrative state contracts.

Still, he wins favour with many older, poorer voters in rural areas who espouse his traditional Christian values and with families who benefit from a host of tax breaks and price caps on fuel and some foodstuffs.

The election comes at a time when global energy woes and steep labour shortages have fuelled inflation increases throughout central Europe. Consumer price growth reached an almost 15-year high of 8.3 per cent in February in Hungary.