The Hungarian election result is a horror for Roma people, disastrous for LGBTQ people, and a threat to progressives across Europe.
With 98% of votes counted, Viktor Orbán’s far-Right Fidesz has increased its majority over the now united opposition, which could only muster 35% of the vote, and two constituencies outside its Budapest stronghold. The six main opposition parties, standing as an alliance, got six fewer seats than they managed in 2018 as separate entities.
Persecution of the Roma community in the country in recent years has intensified to the extent that many have fled. Most, as EU citizens, go elsewhere in Europe. But thousands more seek asylum in Canada, where the vast majority are able to demonstrate that they have been badly enough treated to qualify as refugees – one of the few pieces of concrete data about Roma people fleeing Hungary.
