Having held power continuously since 2010, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is the longest serving prime minister in Europe. Now, as the dust settles on the latest election, he is beginning yet another four-year term.
Orbán faced down a challenge from a six party-strong opposition during the election campaign to hold on to his two-thirds super majority in parliament. His efforts to shore up power in recent years have once again delivered the vast majority of parliamentary seats to his Fidesz party.
Orbán is still the most successful politician in Hungary even if he owes that success to questionable tactics. A report from the Central European University’s Democracy Institute accuses Fidesz of sabotaging the vote by rewriting electoral rules to suit its own needs and deploying state power to control the media and public institutions as part of a “systematic effort to rig the elections”.
