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Hungary is an independent state, which has been a member of the European Union since 2004. Since 1989 Hungary has been a parliamentary republic. Legislative power is exercised by the unicameral National Assembly that consists of 199 members. Members of the National Assembly are elected for four years.
In the April 2022 election, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán won a fourth consecutive term in office. His party, Fidesz, secured another two-thirds majority in parliament.[2]
The president of the republic, elected by the National Assembly every five years, has a largely ceremonial role, but they are nominally the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and their powers include the nomination of the prime minister, who is to be elected by a majority of the votes of the members of Parliament, based on the recommendation made by the president of the republic. If the president dies, resigns or is otherwise unable to carry out his duties, the speaker of the National Assembly becomes acting president.
Due to the Hungarian Constitution, based on the post-World War IIBasic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the prime minister has a leading role in the executive branch as he selects Cabinet ministers and has the exclusive right to dismiss them (similarly to the competences of the German federal chancellor). Each cabinet nominee appears before one or more parliamentary committees in consultative open hearings, survive a vote by the Parliament and must be formally approved by the president.
The unicameral, 199-member National Assembly (Országgyűlés) is the highest organ of state authority and initiates and approves legislation sponsored by the prime minister. Its members are elected for a four-year term. The election threshold is 5%, but it only applies to the multi-seat constituencies and the compensation seats, not the single-seat constituencies.
There are basically two main factions in the Hungarian political system, the right-wing FIDESZ-KDNP coalition, and the center-right to left-wing United for Hungary which consists of the following parties: DK, MSZP, Jobbik, Dialogue, LMP-Greens, Momentum. There are also associate parties and movements such as ÚVNP, Liberals, New Start, MMM movement, 99M movement. There are also some minor parties which are not part of these two coalitions such as the far-right Our Homeland Movement, and the joke party called Hungarian Two Tailed Dog Party.
A fifteen-member Constitutional Court has power to challenge legislation on grounds of unconstitutionality. This body was last filled in July 2010. Members are elected for a term of twelve years. Critics of the ruling coalition contend that since the Hungarian government filled the Constitutional Court with loyal judges, the institution mostly serves to legitimize government interests and has lost its original purpose as democratic defender of the rule of law and of human rights - as several reports of independent human rights NGOs, such as the Hungarian Helsinki Committee emphasize.[6]
The president of the Supreme Court of Hungary (Curia) and the Hungarian civil and penal legal system he leads is fully independent of the Executive Branch.
The attorney general or chief prosecutor of Hungary is currently fully independent of the executive branch, but his status is actively debated.
Several ombudsman offices exist in Hungary to protect civil, minority, educational and ecological rights in non-judicial matters. They have held the authority to issue legally binding decisions since late 2003.
Financial branch
The central bank, the Hungarian National Bank was fully self-governing between 1990 and 2004, but new legislation gave certain appointment rights to the executive branch in November 2004 which is disputed before the Constitutional Court.
The Democratic Coalition is a social-liberal and social-democratic political party in Hungary led by former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. Founded in 2010 as a faction within the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the Democratic Coalition split from the MSZP on 22 October 2011 and became a separate party. It has fifteen MPs in the National Assembly and two MEPs in the European Parliament.
Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 25 March 1990, with a second round of voting taking place in all but five single member constituencies on 8 April. They were the first completely free and competitive elections to be held in the country since 1945, and only the second completely free elections with universal suffrage in the country's history. The conservative, nationalist Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) beat the liberal and more internationalist Alliance of Free Democrats, which had spearheaded opposition to Communist rule in 1989, to become the largest party in parliament. The Hungarian Socialist Party, the former Communist party, suffered a crushing defeat, winning only 33 seats for fourth place.
The second government of Viktor Orbán or the Government of National Cooperation was the Government of Hungary from 29 May 2010 to 6 June 2014. Orbán formed his second cabinet after his party, Fidesz won the outright majority in the first round on April 11, with the Fidesz-KDNP alliance winning 206 seats, including 119 individual seats. In the final result, they won 263 seats, of which 173 are individual seats. Fidesz held 227 of these seats, giving it an outright majority in the National Assembly by itself.
An early indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 2 May 2012, following the resignation of Pál Schmitt as President of Hungary on 2 April 2012. János Áder was elected president with an absolute majority.
Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 6 April 2014. This parliamentary election was the 7th since the 1990 first multi-party election. The result was a victory for the Fidesz–KDNP alliance, preserving its two-thirds majority, with Viktor Orbán remaining Prime Minister. It was the first election under the new Constitution of Hungary which came into force on 1 January 2012. The new electoral law also entered into force that day. For the first time since Hungary's transition to democracy, the election had a single round. The voters elected 199 MPs instead of the previous 386 lawmakers.
Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 8 April 2018. The elections were the second since the adoption of a new constitution, which came into force on 1 January 2012. The result was a victory for the Fidesz–KDNP alliance, preserving its two-thirds majority, with Viktor Orbán remaining Prime Minister. Orbán and Fidesz campaigned primarily on the issues of immigration and foreign meddling, and the election was seen as a victory for right-wing populism in Europe.
An indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 13 March 2017. János Áder was elected President of Hungary for a second term.
Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 3 April 2022 to elect the National Assembly, coinciding with a referendum. Hungary's incumbent prime minister Viktor Orbán won re-election to a fourth term. Addressing his supporters after the partial results showed Fidesz leading by a wide margin, Orbán said: "We won a victory so big that you can see it from the moon, and you can certainly see it from Brussels." Opposition leader Péter Márki-Zay admitted defeat shortly after Orbán's speech. Reuters described it as a "crushing victory".
Local elections were held in Hungary on 13 October 2019. Mayors and assembly members were elected for a term of 5 years.
Lajos Pősze is a Hungarian business executive, sports official and politician, who was a member of the National Assembly (MP) from 2010 to 2014.
The Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Assembly is the local legislative body of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County in the Northern Hungary, in Hungary.
The Békés County Assembly is the local legislative body of Békés County in the Southern Great Plain in Hungary.
The Bács Kiskun County Assembly is the local legislative body of Bács-Kiskun County in the Southern Great Plain, in Hungary.
The Heves County Assembly is the local legislative body of Heves County in the Northern Hungary, in Hungary.
The General Assembly of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County is the local legislative body of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County in the Northern Great Plain in Hungary.
The Nógrád County Assembly is the local legislative body of Nógrád County in the Northern Hungary, in Hungary.
The Komárom-Esztergom County Assembly is the local legislative body of Komárom-Esztergom County in the Central Transdanubia, in Hungary.
The Veszprém County Assembly is the local legislative body of Veszprém County in the Central Transdanubia, in Hungary.
The Vas County Assembly is the local legislative body of Vas County in the Western Transdanubia, in Hungary.
The 4th constituency of Fejér County is one of the single member constituencies of the National Assembly, the national legislature of Hungary. The constituency standard abbreviation: Fejér 04. OEVK.
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