Inaugural Session of the New Hungarian Parliament

Hungary’s new parliament held its opening session this Monday following the April 3 general elections.

Shortly after 11 a.m., President János Áder opened the inaugural session of Hungary’s ninth freely elected National Assembly. Based on the results of the April 3 general elections, the Fidesz-KDNP alliance won 135 out of 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, with the democratic opposition forming a united front for the elections (Democratic Coalition 15; Jobbik, Momentum and MSZP 10 each; Párbeszéd 6 and LMP 5 seats) and Mi Hazánk 6 seats sharing the rest.

In his opening speech, President Áder urged MPs to say yes to representing Hungary’s national interest, to the prosperity of the country, to the security of Hungarians, and to fact-based debates and shared successes, but to say no to self-serving and short-sighted politics, to serving foreign interests, to conflicts and to lying. He concluded that he would propose that the National Assembly elect Viktor Orbán as prime minister of Hungary.

Members of parliament then elected László Kövér as Hungary’s next parliamentary speaker with 170 votes in favor.

After taking the oath as members of parliament, several parties of the democratic opposition left the chamber in protest of the uneven playing field of "non-democratic" election and media systems created by the Orbán government.