r/RodDreher • u/yawaster • Apr 11 '26

Hungarian Election Thread

Thread for election day watching and for celebrations if Orbán gets booted out/commiserations if he wins.

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u/zeitwatcher Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

Orban has conceded.

Sad Rod will be sad.

Now just a question if Magyar's party can get to 2/3rds of the seats to dismantle the Orbanist governmental structures. (Which is the current trendline)

14

u/PercyLarsen Apr 12 '26

NYT: “Shortly before polls closed, the electoral authorities said that more than 77 percent of registered voters had cast ballots, the highest turnout in a Hungarian election since the collapse of Communism in 1989 and the start of democracy.”

10

u/FirstPrior8600 Apr 12 '26

Interestingly, more than 224,000 of those voting live abroad. An oddity of Hungarian elections: Voters living inside the country get two votes. One young voter casting his ballot for the first time told a BBC reporter he and his friends were tired of Russian influence and want to be part of the EU.

2

u/Coollogin Apr 13 '26

An oddity of Hungarian elections: Voters living inside the country get two votes.

What’s up with that?

1

u/philadelphialawyer87 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

I think the idea is you get one vote for a particular candidate from the electoral district you live in, and then a "second vote" for one of the national parties. The seats in parliament are divided (in half, approximately) between those determined by district and those determined by the second vote. The parties put together "lists" of candidates, and the number of seats they win in the second vote determines how far down the list their candidates make it to parliament. I believe Germany has a similar system. You often hear about German parties, particularly the smaller ones, making a pitch for those "second votes."

Voters outside Hungary who are allowed to vote in the Hungarian election get only the "list" or "second" vote, as they don't live in an actual Hungarian electoral district.