Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared victory in elections in the central European country.
Orban made the announcement to supporters of his Fidesz party in the capital, Budapest, on the night of April 6.
Orban said the result was an endorsement of his government's policies to create jobs, support families, and fight for national sovereignty.
With about 99 percent of ballots counted, Fidesz is on track to win more than 44 percent of the vote, or 133 seats in Hungary's 199-seat parliament.
If confirmed, this would mean that Fidesz narrowly retained its commanding two-thirds majority in parliament needed to amend the constitution, giving Orban a legislative carte blanche for another four years.
"This was not just any odd victory," he said. "We have scored such a comprehensive victory, the significance of which we cannot yet fully grasp tonight."
The same vote forecast gave the Socialist-led leftist alliance 38 seats, while the far-right Jobbik party, which has been accused of anti-Semitism, appeared poised to win some 20 percent of the vote, or 23 seats.
Orban has clashed with the European Union over accusations that he is undermining democracy. But many Hungarians see him as a protector of national interests.
The other big winner of the poll was the Jobbik party, which denies being racist and says it is pro-law and order as well as anticorruption. It was already the third-largest party in the outgoing parliament.
At the last election, Jobbik scored 16.7 percent of the vote.
A Jobbik legislator said in 2012 that a list of all Jewish lawmakers was needed for "national security" reasons and it wants detention centers for Roma "deviants."
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said the "neo-Nazi" Jobbik's performance "should be a source of grave concern for Europe."
Kantor called the result a "dark day" for Hungary.
The head of the OSCE election monitoring mission in Hungary, Adao Silva, told a press conference in Budapest on April 7 that on the whole, the election was "transparently and efficiently administered."
But the OSCE added in a statement that Fidesz "enjoyed an undue advantage because of restrictive campaign regulations, biased media coverage and campaign activities that blurred the separation between political party and the state.
Orban made the announcement to supporters of his Fidesz party in the capital, Budapest, on the night of April 6.
Orban said the result was an endorsement of his government's policies to create jobs, support families, and fight for national sovereignty.
With about 99 percent of ballots counted, Fidesz is on track to win more than 44 percent of the vote, or 133 seats in Hungary's 199-seat parliament.
If confirmed, this would mean that Fidesz narrowly retained its commanding two-thirds majority in parliament needed to amend the constitution, giving Orban a legislative carte blanche for another four years.
"This was not just any odd victory," he said. "We have scored such a comprehensive victory, the significance of which we cannot yet fully grasp tonight."
The same vote forecast gave the Socialist-led leftist alliance 38 seats, while the far-right Jobbik party, which has been accused of anti-Semitism, appeared poised to win some 20 percent of the vote, or 23 seats.
Orban has clashed with the European Union over accusations that he is undermining democracy. But many Hungarians see him as a protector of national interests.
The other big winner of the poll was the Jobbik party, which denies being racist and says it is pro-law and order as well as anticorruption. It was already the third-largest party in the outgoing parliament.
At the last election, Jobbik scored 16.7 percent of the vote.
A Jobbik legislator said in 2012 that a list of all Jewish lawmakers was needed for "national security" reasons and it wants detention centers for Roma "deviants."
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said the "neo-Nazi" Jobbik's performance "should be a source of grave concern for Europe."
Kantor called the result a "dark day" for Hungary.
The head of the OSCE election monitoring mission in Hungary, Adao Silva, told a press conference in Budapest on April 7 that on the whole, the election was "transparently and efficiently administered."
But the OSCE added in a statement that Fidesz "enjoyed an undue advantage because of restrictive campaign regulations, biased media coverage and campaign activities that blurred the separation between political party and the state.