New Parline: the IPU’s Open Data Platform (beta)

Your one-stop-shop for information about national parliaments

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Hungarian Civic Union-Christian Democratic People's Party (FIDESZ-KDNP) retained its two-thirds majority in the 199-member National Assembly, and therefore the possibility to amend the Constitution on its own. The far-right Jobbik came in a distant second with 26 seats, followed by the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) - Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd) with 20 seats. Other parties took fewer than 10 seats. On 8 May, President Janos Ader tasked Mr. Orban with forming a new government. The newly elected National Assembly, convened later the same day, re-elected Mr. Orban as Prime Minister for a third consecutive term. The 2018 elections were the first to be held after refugee crisis in 2015 and subsequent EU plans to resettle asylum-seekers. In October 2016, a referendum rejecting the EU quota (whereby Hungary would have taken in 1,294 refugees) was invalidated due to a low turnout. The following month, the National Assembly rejected constitutional amendments that would have banned the settlement of refugees in the country. In December 2017, the European Commission took Hungary and two other EU members to the European Court of Justice over their failure to accept their required quotas for refugees. During the 2018 election campaign, the Prime Minister focused again on migration, promising to protect Hungary from migrants. The FIDESZ-KDNP ran on its record, citing economic growth and lower unemployment, as well as keeping the budget deficit under control. The opposition parties criticized the FIDESZ-KDNP for having curtailed the powers of the constitutional court and increased state control over the media.