The Hungarian European and general election campaign has dramatically changed the country’s political landscape. Five images: Viktor Orbán announcing his victory; the Socialist Party buried under corruption charges; Jobbik, the new anti-establishment party; Green Party leaders seconds after learning that they first met the parliamentary threshold and MDF loosing its appeal on rational moderate voters.

Viktor Orban Victory Speech

Viktor Orbán addresses his supporters on 11 April 2010. Mr Orbán, former prime minister between 1998-2002, was narrowly defeated 8 years ago and now he won back the the Hungarian premiership with a record 52% of the national vote. The charismatic leader of the Fidesz party (member of the European People’s Party group) had been leading his party since 1988.

Hungarian Socialist Party / Mounting

Kasírozás / Mounting (Unrelated text above phonebox) – MSZP, the Hungarian Socialist Party has scored its second worst result since the fall of Communism. The Socialists, not legal successors of the Communist Party (that had never made it into the democratically elected assembly) only its wealth has struggled to keep its second place before the far-right anti-establishment Jobbik party after 8 years of unsuccessful government. It is not unlikely that the post-Communist Socialist Party, however deeply rooted in Hungary, may not recover from years of sleaze and misgovernment, very much like Poland’s former Communist Party.

Jobbik – The New Power

Caution! High Voltage! Risk of Life!
THE NEW POWER – Hungary belongs to the Hungarians.
Jobbik, Hungary’s new far-right / anti-establishment party enters the European Parliament in 2009 (image) and the National Assembly with a stunning 17% of the national vote in 2010.

LMP – Politics can be different – YES!

IGEN! YES! András Schiffer and the LMP (Politics Can Be Different) announces that it made into the Hungarian national assembly – this is the first time that a Green Party passes the 5% national threshold. András had been organizing this for 17 years at least (that’s when we met in Alternatív Hálózat). The photo is taken seconds after it was officially announced that the party made it into the Parliament.

Use Your Brain – MDF's hopes broken

Többet ésszel! (Use Your Brain) The moderate MDF party’s slogan refers to a Hungarian saying, literally meaning more with your brain than with power. The party wanted to appeal to rational voters against an emotional (and angry) electorate.

MDF made a suprise comeback with Mr Boros, a maverick libertarian former Minister of Finance and a Habsburg archduke in the 2009 EP campaign (image) but its hopes were crashed after an ill-fated alliance with the Liberals who fell out from the EP in 2009 and took down MDF in 2010.

See also: a short account of the 2010 general election results (there will be some run-offs on 25 April, but Fidesz already has the majority of deputies in the national assembly) and the 2009 European elections that already had shown this likely outcome, a series of posts where the Hungarian parties stand in the European political landscape and other Hungary related posts. Here are some images about Hungarian life and politics.

Hungarian blog without party politics – magyar blog, pártpolitika nélkül.