Update on the 2024 European Parliamentary Elections: Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria and Ireland

Hungary: The far-right anti-migrant ruling party of Hungary won less than majority of votes and seats in the European Parliamentary elections. A new center right party led by a former ruling party director won 30% to become the leading opposition party, setting up a competitive contest for the Hungarian parliamentary elections next year. The upstart party did well, despite, only being afforded minimal exposure by state-controlled media that the Hungarian Government uses to promote its policies. The self-described “illiberal” Hungarian Government has been described by the European Union as an “elected autocracy.” The ruling party, which has governed since 2010, is authoritarian and corrupt, which has caused the EU to withhold funds to Hungary. The EU also fined Hungary over $200 million last week for violating its common policy on refugees seeking asylum from persecution and violence, whom the Hungarian Government deported. Most migrants do not necessarily wish to stay in Hungary, which is not a free country, or other EU member States they first enter, but to transit elsewhere in the EU. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization worked out a deal whereby Hungary will opt-out of NATO’s defensive aid funding of Ukraine, instead of blocking the aid, for which a unanimous vote of the 30 members is required. Italy: The center-right Forza Italia (FI) party won nearly 10% of the vote in the first election since the death of its founder, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, coming in fourth place, just behind the anti-establishment populists, better than in the previous EP elections and better than the far-right anti-migrant League, which had been the party in Italy that won the most votes and seats in the last election five years ago. FI is part of the governing coalition with the League, but aligned with the ruling European People’s Party (EPP). The League had been pressuring FI to join with the far right, including the ruling party of Hungary, which was pressured out of the EPP. FI also had formed an electoral alliance for the EP elections with a moderate party that is not in the Italian Government. Bulgaria and Ireland: The pro-Russian party in fractious Bulgaria came in fourth place in the EP elections while a pro-Russian Member of the EP from Ireland was defeated.