Hungary elections live: Orban fights to remain in power as voters head to polls in key test for Europe – UK Times

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The polls have now opened in Hungary, where it has just turned 6am.

The polls will remain open for 13 hours before closing at 7pm local time (6pm BST).

Early results are expected to start coming in within one or two hours of this point. But some votes could take longer to count, with the count likely to take up to four days for ballots cast abroad.

However, by Sunday night, we should have almost the full picture, with up to 95 per cent of the vote expected to have been counted.

Stay with us throughout the day as we bring you live coverage of what could be a momentous day for European politics.

Polls will open early on Sunday morning, with preliminary results expected to start appearing from around 8pm. Most voters will cast one vote for a candidate in their constituency and another for a nationwide party list.

Around 95 per cent of both votes are expected to be processed on election night. The National Election Office will also have to aggregate ballots cast from abroad, meaning in a tight race it could be another week before there is a definitive outcome.

The polls suggest a lead for Peter Magyar, whose party had the support of 52 per cent of decided voters going into the election, according to a poll conducted by the Publicus Institute. Some 39 per cent of decided voters backed Orbán’s Fidesz.

Still, the election is far from a closed contest. Around one in five voters are undecided, and historical gerrymandering and a high proportion of ethnic Hungarians supportive of Fidesz casting their vote in neighbouring countries could cause an upset.

Critics have also warned of the potential for vote manipulation.

Viktor Orban’s odds of winning the Hungarian parliamentary election dropped this week, following a visit by vice president JD Vance.

The vice president said he would help the incumbent prime minister in his election campaign in a press conference in the Hungarian capital of Budapest on Wednesday.

He also phoned Donald Trump, who gave Orban an endorsement in the election over speaker phone.

But betting markets afterwards showed that Orban’s stock fell marginally – although it is unclear whether it was a direct consequence of Vance’s intervention.

Either way, it is clear that Washington’s involvement so far does not appear to have boosted Orban’s chances to retain power.

Viktor Orbán had led Hungary through four years of recession and recovery when he chose to unveil his grand plan for an “illiberal democracy” at a cultural event in Romania in 2014.

In his most consequential speech as leader, he argued that the financial crisis of 2008 had exposed holes in the liberal project and that a strong state, no longer bound to obsess over personal freedoms, was Hungary’s future.

“Just because something is not liberal, it still can be a democracy,” he said, prophetically.

Twelve years later and the country he leads has changed profoundly. Orbán, now aged 62, has cast himself as a defender of the country’s cultural identity, imposing some of Europe’s toughest asylum rules and limiting gay rights while offering families generous handouts to reverse falling birth rates.

Read the full preview by our senior foreign reporter James Reynolds:

It takes a particular kind of chutzpah for a senior US official to travel all the way to Hungary just days before parliamentary elections and use a public platform to accuse others of interfering in the vote. Given that the US was largely preoccupied with the war on Iran, this represented a big investment of status and time – even if it was a welcome diversion for the vice-president, JD Vance.

This two-day visit was intended to bolster support for Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister for the past 16 years and the widely acknowledged leader of the EU’s awkward squad: a position that suits the current US administration just fine. Nor did Vance hold back. Speaking at a rally for Orban, Vance challenged his audience: “Will you stand against the bureaucrats in Brussels? Will you stand for Western civilisation? Will you stand for freedom, truth, and the God of our fathers? Then, my friends, go to the polls and stand for Viktor Orban!”

Whether the US intervention can swing the election for Orban is another matter. For all the enthusiastic reception Vance received, it cannot be excluded that some of the European aversion to what is seen as Trump’s war of choice on Iran will rub off on Hungarians of a Trumpian disposition, as it has on voters elsewhere. And defeat for Orban and his governing Fidesz party looks possible, or at least more possible, than at any time in the years that Orban has exerted his increasingly personal hold on power.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who is trailing in the polls, was asked earlier today by Sky News whether he was worried his Fidesz party may lose the election.

“We win, we win, we always win,” he tells a reporter through a security fence.

Asked again why he is trailing so far behind in the polls, Mr Orban added: “No, no, we always win, don’t worry. Look around, trust your eyes.”

Hungary’s centre-right Tisza party leads prime minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, a poll published by newspaper Nepszava showed on Friday.

Nationalist Orban faces the biggest challenge to ‌his rule in 16 years, although the large number of undecided voters means the outcome of the election is uncertain.

Tisza, led by former government insider Peter Magyar, had the support of 52 per cent of decided ​voters, while 39 per cent backed ​Fidesz, the poll conducted by Publicus Institute showed.

The survey, which had a sample size of 1,000, ‌showed 38 per cent support for Tisza among all voters, with Fidesz backed by 29 per cent. Some 25 per cent of respondents said they had not decided how they would vote.

A poll on Thursday also showed Tisza in front, with 50 per cent of decided ​voters backing the centre-right party, while 37 per cent backed ​Fidesz, the poll by Idea Institute showed.

The survey, which had a sample size of 1,500, ‌showed 39 per cent support for Tisza among all voters, with Fidesz backed by 30 per cent. Some 21 per cent of respondents said they had not decided how they would vote.