Reuters —
Hungary’s main opposition Fidesz party re-elected former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as leader for another year on Saturday, despite losing power to the centre-right Tisza party on April 12.
Orbán, a 62-year-old nationalist, has inspired right-wing conservatives in Europe and the United States as the mastermind of what he calls an “illiberal” model of democracy.
Mr Orbán’s political future was in doubt after Mr Fidesz’s defeat, and he had come under pressure from some of his former supporters to step back from politics, but this was the first such overt criticism since he came to power in 2010.
At Fidesz’s party convention, about 729 out of 737 delegates voted for Orbán’s re-election, state news agency MTI reported. There was no challenger to face him.
“I will not give up, never, never, never, never,” Prime Minister Orbán told parliament in a speech before the vote, repeating that he bears full responsibility for his party’s election defeat.
Orbán said Fidesz had been a “great ruling party” for 16 years but needed to change to become a functioning opposition party capable of governing again.
In April elections, Prime Minister Piotr Magyar’s Tisza party won a two-thirds parliamentary majority, enough seats to overturn Prime Minister Orbán’s constitutional reforms.
Opinion polls show that Fidesz has lost support since the election. In a May poll by the Publicus Institute, Mr. Tisa’s approval rating was 55%, up from the 53% he secured in the election, while Mr. Fidesz’s approval rating had fallen from 39% to 17%.
