hungarian political risk

woops..watch out..the most right wing Governemnt in Europe just got elected. If WHE is successful they will just take it and kick the little Aussie company out....

Think I am joking...speak to any Hungarians about this government and leader. The board and management of Wildhorse has no idea what they will be dealing with now...the more successful they are the more chance the Government of Hungary will just take it over...

DYOR

http://www.budapesttimes.hu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14307&Itemid=219

ALL POWERFUL
Written by Robert Hodgson
Monday, 26 April 2010

With its two-thirds majority Fidesz can change the Constitution, electoral laws, cull MPs ranks & reduce local government


The centre-right party Fidesz secured the unprecedented two-thirds majority that it had hoped for Sunday, when it secured 263 of 386 seats in Hungarys next parliament with 98 per cent of second round votes counted. Fidesz leader Viktor Orbn fought back a wide grin as he stood before a jubilant crowd that filled Vrsmrty tr in the centre of the capital and chanted Viktor, Viktor! as the prime minister elect prepared to speak. We have been able to bring about a great change through democratic means that previously we could only have done with a revolution, Orbn said.

The supermajority it has secured will give the centre-right party the power to implement deep structural changes that in previous parliaments would have required a hard-to-imagine cross-party consensus. Fidesz has already signalled that it intends to alter the parliamentary and local council systems by cutting in half the number of lawmakers. Orbn referred several times to building a new system in Hungary. This was a reference to the collapse of communism in 1989 and the subsequent switch to free elections, events which Hungarians refer to as the change of system. Orbn told his supporters that Fidesz will rebuild a country that had been ruined by oligarchs abusing their power.

Socialist chairwoman resigns

The Socialists, after eight years in government, suffered a devastating electoral defeat, and will now sit on the opposition benches with just 59 representatives. Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) chairwoman Ildiko Lendvai announced her resignation within minutes of the scale of her partys defeat becoming clear. She congratulated Fidesz on its victory, and warned that the next government could do much, both good and bad, with its huge mandate to govern. The MSZPs defeated prime ministerial candidate, Attila Mesterhzy expressed the hope that the incoming Fidesz government would be one of dialogue not diktat.
Jobbik support falls

The nationalist party Jobbik is set to form a doubtless vocal opposition caucus in the new parliament with 47 seats making it Hungarys third largest political force. Despite fears that low turnout (just over 46 per cent of the 2.5 million who voted in the undecided 57 constituencies last Sunday) could play into the hands of the far-right party, Jobbik actually polled lower than in the first round of voting in the bulk of ballots, and failed to pass the ten per cent mark in any of the remaining Budapest constituencies. The nationalists saw increased support, however, in a few deprived areas of northern and eastern Hungary such as the city of zd.
The controversial far-right party is known for its outlawed paramilitary offshoot, the Magyar Grda (Hungarian Guard). The organisation was ruled illegal for infringing the human rights of Roma villages during a show of strength rally against gypsy crime. The leader of both Jobbik and the Grda, Gbor Vona, has pledged that he will attend parliament in his Grda tunic. Deciding how to react to such a move, which is bound to attract international media attention, could provide Fidesz with one of its first governmental headaches. (see article, page 3).

About two-thirds...

Fidesz had already secured an outright majority with 206 seats secured in the next parliament after first round voting on April 11. The Socialists and the nationalists had shown a very rare example of unanimity over the following two weeks, with both parties urging voters to deny Fidesz a parliamentary supermajority. The rhetoric of both the Socialists and the far right warned of Orbn being afforded a "dictatorial" level of power. However, a poll conducted by the Perspective Institute (Nzopont Intzet) in the intervening fortnight suggested that 57 per cent of Hungarians thought a super-strong Fidesz government would be good for Hungary. This finding appears to have been borne out by voters actions last Sunday.
How Fidesz and Orbn will wield this unprecedented level of political power unprecedented in democratic Hungary, that is remains to be seen. The downsizing of parliament and local councils, cutting the number of representatives by half with effect from 2014, has already been announced. However, the precise nature of any concomitant restructuring of the electoral system has not been spelled out. The law on citizenship for ethnic Hungarians living beyond Hungarys post-1920 borders and media law are both areas that require a two-thirds majority and have been mentioned recently in the domestic press as potential targets for restructuring by Fidesz.

New faces

The only other party to make it into Hungarys next parliament was the newcomer green-liberal party LMP (Politics Can Be Different), which won just 16 seats. Only one independent made it past the post: the controversial formerly-Fidesz mayor of Edelny a small town in the deprived northeast of Hungary. Oszkr Molnr was taken off the Fidesz candidate list for claims he made in a television interview about pregnant Roma women deliberately hitting their stomachs with rubber hammers in order to give birth to handicapped babies and claim extra state benefits.

Molnrs narrow victory over his Fidesz opponent was thanks in no small part to Jobbik withdrawing its candidate from the second round vote and urging supporters to back Molnr.


Quick change of power

The first session of Hungarys new parliament could take place as early as 10 May, the state news agency MTI reported, citing political analysts. The new Fidesz government could be in place by 20 May. And it will have its work cut out. Orbns government will inherit a country that needed a EUR 20-billion IMF and EU bailout in the autumn of 2008. Drastic public sector spending cuts exacerbated the countrys recession, and the economy shrank by 6.3 per cent last year, while unemployment has risen to a 16-year high of over 11 per cent.
Widespread euphoria from Fideszs victory over a discredited Socialist government could soon evaporate if the party finds itself unable to made rapid progress in these key areas.