European Parliament election, 2009 (Hungary)

European Parliament election

2004 ←
7 June 2009
→ 2014

All 22 seats of Hungary in the European Parliament
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Viktor Orbán Ildikó Lendvai Gábor Vona
Party FIDESZ MSZP JOBBIK
Alliance EPP S&D NI
Leader since 2003 5 April 2009 2006
Last election 12
9 0
Seats won 14 4 3
Seat change +2 -5 +3
Percentage 56,37% 17,37% 14,77%

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Ibolya Dávid Gábor Fodor
Party MDF SZDSZ
Alliance ECR ALDE
Leader since 1999 2008
Last election 1
2
Seats won 1 0
Seat change +0 -2
Percentage 5,3% 2,16%

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Hungary was the election of the delegation from Hungary to the European Parliament in 2009. Hungary delegated 22 members to the European Parliament based on the Nice treaty and the election took place on the 7th of June.

Contents

Candidates

Among the candidates that ran were:

The Election

The election in Hungary took place according to the 2003 CXIII. law about European election and the 1997 C. election law. According to this the country consists of a single election district and those parties will be put on the ballot who could collect 20,000 proposal coupons.[1][2] Eight qualified lists were approved by Hungarian authorities to be put on the ballot, of which two of them were shared lists. Fidesz shared its party list with the KDNP to create a joint Fidesz-KDNP list, and Politics Can Be Different shared its party list with the Humanist Party to create a joint LMP-HP list.

Opinion polls

Source Date FIDESZ MSZP SZDSZ MDF JOBBIK others
Medián [3] 25/2/2009 63% 25% 4% 2% 4% 2%
Medián [4] 18/3/2009 66% 23% 2% 4% 4% 1%
Tárki [5] 30/3/2009 62% 23% 3% 3% 4% 5%
Marketing Centrum [6] 30/3/2009 61% 25% 3% 4% 5% 2%
Progresszív Intézet [7] 13/4/2009 62% 25% 3% 5% 3% 2%
Medián [8] 15/4/2009 70% 18% 2% 2% 4% 4%
Századvég-Forsense [9] 21/4/2009 70% 18% 2% 1% 5% 4%
Forsense [10] 27/4/2009 63% 27% 2% 2% 6% 1%
Tárki [11] 29/4/2009 64% 22% 4% 2% 4% 4%
Gallup [12] 8/5/2009 68% 21% 1% 2% 5% 3%
Századvég-Forsense [13] 26/5/2009 71% 17% 1% 2% 6% 3%
Nézőpont [14] 27/5/2009 66% 14% 4% 6% 7% 3%
Tárki [15] 27/5/2009 70% 17% 3% 1% 4% 5%
Szonda Ipsos [16] 28/5/2009 67% 21% 2% 3% 4% 3%
Marketing Centrum [17] 01/06/2009 61% 19% 5% 4% 8% 5%
Medián [18] 03/06/2009 60% 21% 4% 4% 7% 4%

Results

Summary of the 7 June 2009 European Parliament elections
Parties Votes 2004 % 2004 Seats 2004 Votes 2009 % 2009 Seats 2009 Difference
National Party European party
Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union (FIDESZ)[19] EPP 1,457,750 47.40 12 1,632,309 56,36 14 +2
Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) PES 1,054,921 34.30 9 503,140 17,37 4 -5
Movement for a Better Hungary (JOBBIK) none - - 0 427,773 14,77 3 +3
Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) ECR 164,025 5.33 1 153,660 5.31 1 0
Politics Can Be Different (LMP)[20] none - - - 75,522 2.61 0 -
Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) ELDR 237,908 7.74 2 62,527 2.16 0 -2
Hungarian Communist Workers' Party (Munkáspárt) none[21] 56,221 1.83 0 27,817 0.96 0 0
Gypsy Alliance Party (MCF) none - - - 13,431 0.46 0 -
Total (turnout 36,31%)[22] 3,075,450 100.0 24 2,896,179 100.0 22
Source: Valasztas.hu

The European Parliament elections' biggest winners were the centre-right opposition Fidesz party, which won 56.4% of the vote and 14 seats. The far-right Jobbik ("For a Better Hungary") party also performed stronger than expected. The Hungarian Democratic Forum also gained 1 seat, the former finance minister Lajos Bokros can travel to Brussels.

The liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) was almost wiped off the political map, attracting only 60,000 votes or 2.2%, compared to more than a million in the country's first free elections 19 years ago.

List of seat winners

On the Fidesz Party list:

  1. Pál Schmitt
  2. József Szájer
  3. Kinga Gál
  4. János Áder
  5. László Surján
  6. Tamás Deutsch
  7. Lívia Járóka
  8. György Schöpflin
  9. András Gyürk
  10. Csaba Őry
  11. Béla Glattfelder
  12. Ádám Kósa
  13. Ágnes Hankiss
  14. Enikő Győri

On the MSZP Party list:

  1. Kinga Göncz
  2. Edit Herczog
  3. Zita Gurmai
  4. Csaba Tabajdi

On the Jobbik Party list:

  1. Krisztina Morvai
  2. Zoltán Balczó
  3. Csanád Szegedi

On the MDF Party list:

  1. Lajos Bokros

Consequences

Alliance of Free Democrats Party leader Gábor Fodor announced that he will offer his resignation in case his party will not reach the 5% limit needed for representation in the European Parliament (the same limit is applied in national elections). After the election results were published Fodor repeated his statement promising to offer his resignation to the party congress the following day. The election result ultimately caused mass resignations including Fodor in the leadership of SZDSZ and internal turmoil in the party. The election results prompted an intense debate about the future of the party in MSZP as well.

See also

References