HUNGARY’S RULING Fidesz party has secured an anticipated landslide victory in local elections, winning control of 22 of the country’s 23 main towns and cities and taking the helm in Budapest for the first time in party history.
Prime minister Viktor Orban said the result, which followed a crushing general election win in April, confirmed public approval for his plan to drag the country out of recession by cutting taxes and fostering growth rather than slashing spending.
In Latvia, the ruling coalition has invited a party rooted in the country’s large Russian-speaking minority to join it in power, as it seeks to use Saturday’s election victory to broaden its support during a period of tough austerity measures.
A stronger than expected performance gave Latvia’s incumbent centre-right alliance 63 seats in the 100-seat parliament, but prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis quickly looked to strengthen his position further by wooing the Harmony Centre party.
Harmony Centre, which was formed around Latvia’s ethnic Russian community but has recently tried hard to widen its appeal, failed in its ambition to win the election but increased its share of seats to 29, giving it considerable clout.
Mr Dombrovskis must push through another raft of painful budget cuts if Latvia is to cut its deficit and meet the conditions of a €7.5 billion international loan that saved the country from meltdown when its credit-fuelled economy suddenly plunged into recession.
“We offer an opportunity to sign a co-operation agreement with Harmony Centre, to agree on co-operation in parliament, maybe also delegating a minister,” said Mr Dombrovskis.
Harmony Centre criticised the terms of Latvia’s loan deal before the vote, but leaders said yesterday that the party might be ready to support the new government.
Bosnia’s weekend ballot delivered no such hope of a breakthrough in ethnic relations however, as the main Serb party vowed not to co-operate with moderate Muslims who want to boost links between the communities and overcome the lingering legacy of the 1992-1995 war.
Sunday’s vote appeared only to further entrench divisions between the Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation, which were created by the Dayton Accords that ended the war in Bosnia.
Relatively moderate parties and candidates fared well in the Muslim-Croat Federation, which broadly supports western-backed moves to weaken Bosnia’s ethnic “entities” and to strengthen its central government in Sarajevo.
Bakir Izetbegovic, the moderate son of wartime Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, ousted the more hardline Haris Silajdzic as the Muslim member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency and the multi-ethnic SDP party did best in a parliamentary ballot in the Muslim-Croat Federation.
In Republika Srpska, however, nationalists triumphed under the leadership of Milorad Dodik, who has repeatedly threatened to seek secession from Bosnia rather than see his region lose any of its autonomy to Sarajevo.
International observers said the voting in Republika Srpska should be investigated, after an unusually high number of ballots were declared invalid.