European Parliament election, 2009 (Hungary)

European Parliament election

7 June 2009
All 22 seats of Hungary in the European Parliament
Majority party Minority party Third party   150x150px 150x150px Leader Pál Schmitt Kinga Göncz Krisztina Morvai Party Fidesz MSZP Jobbik Alliance EPP S&D NI Last election 12 9 0 Seats won 14 4 3 Seat change 2 5 3 Popular vote 1,632,309 503,140 427,773 Percentage 56.37% 17.37% 14.77%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   150x150px 150x150px Leader Lajos Bokros Tímea Szabó István Szent-Iványi Party MDF LMP SZDSZ Alliance ECR NI ALDE Last election 1 new 2 Seats won 1 0 0 Seat change 0 new 2 Popular vote 153,660 75,522 62,527 Percentage 5.31% 2.61% 2.16%

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Hungary was the election of the delegation from Hungary to the European Parliament in 2009. Hungary delegated 22 members to the European Parliament based on the Nice treaty and the election took place on 7 June.

Candidates

Among the candidates that ran were:

• Pál Schmitt, József Szájer, Kinga Gál, János Áder, László Surján, Lívia Járóka, András Gyürk, Béla Glattfelder, Ádám Kósa, Ágnes Hankiss for Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union
• Kinga Göncz, Edit Herczog, Zita Gurmai, Csaba Sándor Tabajdi, Gyula Hegyi, Szabolcs Fazekas, Gyula Cserei, Mihály Kökény, Gábor Harangozó for the Hungarian Socialist Party
• Lajos Bokros, György Habsburg, Szabolcs Joó, Ibolya Dávid for the Hungarian Democratic Forum
• István Szent-Iványi, Gabriella Béki, Gábor Demszky, György Konrád for the Alliance of Free Democrats
• Krisztina Morvai, Zoltán Balczó, Csanád Szegedi, Judit Szima, Gábor Vona for Jobbik - Movement for a Better Hungary

Election

The election in Hungary took place according to the 2003 CXIII. law about European election and the 1997 C. election law. According to this the country consists of a single election district and those parties will be put on the ballot who could collect 20,000 proposal coupons. Eight qualified lists were approved by Hungarian authorities to be put on the ballot, of which two of them were shared lists. Fidesz shared its party list with the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) to create a joint Fidesz-KDNP list, and Politics Can Be Different shared its party list with the Humanist Party to create a joint LMP-HP list.

File:EP election 2009 in Hungary, proposal coupon, face 1.jpg

Hungarian Proposal coupon used in the 2009 election

Opinion polls

Source	Date	Fidesz	MSZP	SZDSZ	MDF	Jobbik	others
Medián	25/2/2009	63%	25%	4%	2%	4%	2%
Medián	18/3/2009	66%	23%	2%	4%	4%	1%
Tárki	30/3/2009	62%	23%	3%	3%	4%	5%
Marketing Centrum	30/3/2009	61%	25%	3%	4%	5%	2%
Progresszív Intézet	13/4/2009	62%	25%	3%	5%	3%	2%
Medián	15/4/2009	70%	18%	2%	2%	4%	4%
Századvég-Forsense	21/4/2009	70%	18%	2%	1%	5%	4%
Forsense	27/4/2009	63%	27%	2%	2%	6%	1%
Tárki	29/4/2009	64%	22%	4%	2%	4%	4%
Gallup	8/5/2009	68%	21%	1%	2%	5%	3%
Századvég-Forsense	26/5/2009	71%	17%	1%	2%	6%	3%
Nézőpont	27/5/2009	66%	14%	4%	6%	7%	3%
Tárki	27/5/2009	70%	17%	3%	1%	4%	5%
Szonda Ipsos	28/5/2009	67%	21%	2%	3%	4%	3%
Marketing Centrum	01/06/2009	61%	19%	5%	4%	8%	5%
Medián	03/06/2009	60%	21%	4%	4%	7%	4%

Results

 Summary of the results of Hungary's 7 June 2009 election to the European Parliament

← 2004 • 2009 • 2014 →
National party		European party	Main candidate	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz–KDNP)	EPP	Pál Schmitt	1,632,309	56.36	8.96	14 / 22	2
	Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP)	PES	Kinga Göncz	503,140	17.37	16.93	4 / 22	5
	Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik)	none	Krisztina Morvai	427,773	14.77	new	3 / 22	3
	Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF)	EPP	Lajos Bokros	153,660	5.31	0.02	1 / 22	0
	Politics Can Be Different (LMP) + Humanist Party (HP)	none	Tímea Szabó	75,522	2.61	new	0 / 22	0
	Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ)	ELDR	István Szent-Iványi	62,527	2.16	5.58	0 / 22	2
	Hungarian Communist Workers' Party (MKMP)	none	Gyula Thürmer	27,817	0.96	0.87	0 / 22	0
	Romani Alliance Party (MCF)	none	Zsolt Kis	13,431	0.46	new	0 / 22	0
Valid votes				2,896,179	99.12
Blank and invalid votes				24,769	0.85
Totals				2,920,948	99.97
Missing votes				831	0.03
Totals				2,921,779	100.00	—	22 / 22	2
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout				8,046,086	36.31	2.19
Source: Valasztas.hu

The European Parliament elections' biggest winners were the centre-right opposition Fidesz party, which won 56.4% of the vote and 14 seats. The far-right Jobbik ("For a Better Hungary") party also performed stronger than expected. The Hungarian Democratic Forum also gained 1 seat, the former finance minister Lajos Bokros can travel to Brussels.

The liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) was almost wiped off the political map, attracting only 60,000 votes or 2.2%, compared to more than a million in the country's first free elections 19 years ago.

List of seat winners

On the Fidesz Party list:

1. Pál Schmitt
2. József Szájer
3. Kinga Gál
4. János Áder
5. László Surján
6. Tamás Deutsch
7. Lívia Járóka
8. György Schöpflin
9. András Gyürk
10. Csaba Őry
11. Béla Glattfelder
12. Ádám Kósa
13. Ágnes Hankiss
14. Enikő Győri

On the Hungarian Socialist Party list:

1. Kinga Göncz
2. Edit Herczog
3. Zita Gurmai
4. Csaba Tabajdi

On the Jobbik Party list:

1. Krisztina Morvai
2. Zoltán Balczó
3. Csanád Szegedi

On the Hungarian Democratic Forum Party list:

1. Lajos Bokros

Consequences

Alliance of Free Democrats Party leader Gábor Fodor announced that he will offer his resignation in case his party will not reach the 5% limit needed for representation in the European Parliament (the same limit is applied in national elections). After the election results were published Fodor repeated his statement promising to offer his resignation to the party congress the following day. The election result ultimately caused mass resignations including Fodor in the leadership of SZDSZ and internal turmoil in the party. The election results prompted an intense debate about the future of the party in MSZP as well.

See also

• List of political parties in Hungary
• MEPs for Hungary 2004–2009
• MEPs for Hungary 2009–2014

References