The Nézőpont Institute said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will have the second strongest national mandate among European Union leaders taking part in an informal summit in Brussels on Monday.
The think-tank said in a statement that Hungary’s ruling alliance of Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) was backed by 44.82% of the electorate in the June 9 European parliamentary elections, giving Orbán’s “Europe policy” the second strongest democratic legitimacy behind Malta’s Labour Party, which received 45.26%. Nézőpont noted that the leaders with the greatest voting power, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, by contrast, received only 13.9% and 14.6% of the vote, respectively. The statement also pointed out that among the more powerful member states, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez also failed to win the EP election, while Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who is nearing the middle of her term, was victorious.