Hungary's centre-right opposition Fidesz party pledged today to create jobs after its sweeping election victory, while the far-right Jobbik flexed its newly won electoral muscle by promising to pursue distinct and spectacular politics.
The expectation on Fidesz to act quickly to put Hungary on the path to sustainable growth after near financial collapse will be huge, and investors are wary about whether Jobbik will try to hamper reforms and stir more discontent over the economy.
Fidesz won 206 of the 386 parliamentary seats and has a good chance of reaching the two-thirds threshold in the second round on April 25th, which would put it in a position to pass the reforms and even modify a constitution defined 20 years ago after the collapse of communism.
Viktor Orban, Hungary's next prime minister, has disclosed only sketchy policy plans but Fidesz has signalled it wants tax cuts and to reduce the budget deficit, even though it also said a higher deficit than the target of 3.8 per cent could be safely financed.
The leader of Jobbik, which secured one in every six votes to win nearly as many seats as the ruling Socialists in yesterday's swing to the right, said it would not be invisible in parliament and vowed to eradicate what it branded Gypsy crime.
Jobbik chairman Gabor Vona told M1 television his party would "conduct very distinct and very spectacular politics".
"We are not preparing to conduct peaceful and almost invisible politics with this 17 per cent (result)," he said.
Leveraging discontent over the economic crisis and Hungary's large Roma minority, Jobbik secured 26 seats, against the 28 seats won by the Socialists, while the green liberal LMP got five seats. The remaining 121 seats will be decided on April 25th.
Mr Vona told M1 his party would work on a "solution to the problems around Gypsy-Hungarian coexistence. That means eradicating Gypsy crime".
The Roma make up between 5 and 7 per cent of the population and vilifying them proved Jobbik's most successful tactic as the economic slump put more than one in 10 Hungarians out of work.
Reuters