Hungary’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has lost its two-thirds supermajority in parliament. The shakeup follows last weekend’s interim election in the town of Veszprém, where Zoltán Kész, an independent candidate backed by left-wing opposition parties, upset Fidesz candidate Lajos Némedi in a surprise win. Kész, who had been trailing his opponent by 6 percentage points last month, took 42.66 percent of the vote, while Némedi grabbed 33.64 percent, signaling that residents in this Fidesz stronghold are ready for change. The election was held to replace former Fidesz MP Tibor Navracsics after he was appointed EU commissioner.
Orbán’s Fidesz party and its junior partner, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), have held a supermajority in parliament since 2010, which allowed a number of controversial measures to pass in recent months without the support of opposing MPs. Orbán has come under increasing pressure because of an ill-advised attempt to tax consumers for browsing the Internet, and for a cozy policy to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
