Word: fidesz
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...levels of unemployment, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai's Socialist Party suffered a major setback in the country's first round of parliamentary elections on April 11. Although the final allotment of seats won't be determined until after a second round of polling on April 25, the center-right Fidesz party looks to have won 206 spots in the 386-member parliament, while the extremist, far-right Jobbik party, a nationalist group that some accuse of anti-Semitism, won an estimated 26 seats...
...With Fidesz's simple parliamentary majority assured even before the second round of voting, Orban will not have to form a coalition with Jobbik in order to rule - a prospect feared by many during the campaign. But Jobbik will undoubtedly still have influence in national affairs. "It is not clear what Orban will do to neutralize Jobbik," says Alex Kuli, an analyst for the Budapest-based consultancy Political Capital. "Will he cooperate with Jobbik and risk international criticism, or will he try to outdo them on some of their right-wing issues? He's going to have a tough time...
...office at perhaps the most difficult juncture in Hungary's post-communist years. As soon-to-be leader of a country with one of the weakest economies in the European Union, Orban will have no choice but to continue the unpopular austerity measures of the outgoing Socialists - policies that Fidesz had largely opposed while in opposition. "Orban is going to have to make some hard decisions," Kuli says. "And he won't have extra money to throw around" to satisfy voters. Some fear this will make voters even more disillusioned and fuel more support for Jobbik. (Read: "Europe's Voters...
...Csaba argues, however, that Orban is in a strong position to make unpopular choices and survive. "Fidesz has made a transformation over the past two or three years into a mainstream conservative party," he says. "They are all about fiscal discipline. I don't think they will make a U-turn from the reform policies of the current government. They made no populist promises during the campaign. These [promises] were made by Jobbik...
...whatever Fidesz's plans may be - the party was largely silent about its economic policies during the campaign - there is no doubt that Hungary is now gripped by a new sense of hope, a sentiment painfully absent from the political scene in recent years. "I really think this is a new beginning," says Monika Szente, a 37-year-old teacher living in Budapest. "I am very, very enthusiastic. Change won't happen overnight, but if anyone can solve the problems in this country, Fidesz...