Hungarian Conservative

The HDZ-led coalition won 34.4 per cent of the votes in the general election, while the Rivers of Justice got 25.4 per cent of the vote, with a turnout of 62.3 per cent. These results give a hint as to what the outcome of the upcoming European Parliament elections may be. (In the EP HDZ is part of the European People’s Party, while SDP is a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).) Precedent shows that if two elections are held shortly after each other the party that won the first election is likely to slightly improve its vote share in the subsequent election.

There have been misleading press reports suggesting that now Hungary lags behind Romania, based on Eurostat’s fresh data that say that in 2022, Hungary’s GDP per capita at purchasing power parity was 76.6 per cent of the EU average, while in Romania, this ratio was 76.7 per cent. The economic researchers at the Nézőpont Institute investigated whether Romania had indeed overtaken Hungary in economic terms. ‘Based on Eurostat’s data, the answer is simple: no,’ researchers assert in a statement.