- Pakistan at 23-1 after Brook triple hundred takes England to 823-7
- Zelensky meets Starmer, Rutte on whirlwind tour of Europe
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Rafael Nadal calls time on epic tennis career
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines confronts China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Kim Sei-young shoots 62 to take two-stroke lead at LPGA Shanghai
- The haircuts that help traumatised Ukrainian soldiers heal
- Sinner crushes Medvedev to set up potential Alcaraz Shanghai semi
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- England's Harry Brook blasts triple century against Pakistan
- Chinese electric car companies cope with European tariffs
- Zelensky in London for whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Record-breaking Root, Brook both pass 200 as England pile up 658-3
- Football mourns Greek defender George Baldock's shock death at 31
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Home is far away for Madagascar in AFCON qualifying
- Two months on, Donbas soldiers begin to question Kursk offensive
- Rugby Australia to counter-sue in dispute with Melbourne Rebels
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
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- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
Hungary PM tightens hold on power after poll victory
Prime Minister Viktor Orban's fourth-term victory threatens to erode democracy further in Hungary, but he needs to tread a careful path with Brussels to secure much-needed EU funds, analysts said Monday.
His ruling Fidesz party extended its parliamentary majority by two seats in Sunday's general election with turnout at near record levels, trouncing a united opposition in an election overshadowed by Russia's war in neighbouring Ukraine.
This success, on top of 12 consecutive years in power, will make Orban "extremely confident", said analyst Patrik Szicherle of Political Capital.
"This victory shows Fidesz that they need not change course, he can continue constructing his illiberal political system," he told AFP.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, increasingly isolated over the war in Ukraine, congratulated Orban on Monday and said he hoped to develop further Moscow's ties with Budapest.
The Hungarian nationalist has been a rare Putin ally in Europe and in NATO, even if diplomatically he has fallen broadly into line with EU support for Kyiv over the war.
Orban, 58, has ruled the EU nation in central Europe with a tight grip since 2010, taking control of the judiciary and other institutions and cracking down on civil liberties, raising alarm in Brussels.
"We have won a great victory -- a victory so great you can perhaps see it from the moon and certainly from Brussels," Orban told jubilant supporters in a victory speech late Sunday that needled the European Union.
"Conservative politics has won, this is not the past, this is the Europe of the future."
- 'Disaster for democracy' -
Orban has presided over repeated confrontations with the European Union, including over the neutering of the press and judiciary, and measures targeting the LGBTQ community.
With almost all the votes counted, Fidesz won 53 percent of the vote compared to 35 percent for the opposition coalition, according to the national election office.
As a result, Fidesz and its Christian democratic partner KDNP retains its two-thirds majority in parliament with 135 seats -- two more than in the outgoing legislature.
"I'm still savouring this victory," Fidesz MEP Balazs Hidveghi told AFP. "We didn't expect such a big win," he conceded.
The far-right Mi Hazank party also surpassed expectations and will now enter parliament for the first time, after crossing the five-percent minimum threshold.
International observers, who monitored the election, are set to address the media later Monday.
Marta Pardavi of rights group Hungary Helsinki Committee said the results were "a disaster for Hungarian democracy".
"We see from other countries how autocrats do not go into reverse mode on their own," she told AFP.
Analysts say Orban is likely to remain a thorn in the side of Brussels but seek a compromise to unlock billions of euros of pandemic post recovery funds.
Brussels has not released the funds to Hungary amid a row about rule-of-law issues and has set up an unprecedented mechanism to slash funds to EU members that flout democratic standards.
- Confrontation 'ingrained' -
"Confrontation with Brussels, at least on the rhetorical level, is ingrained into the political strategy of Fidesz. It will not disappear," Szicherle said.
Gabor Gyori of Policy Solutions said Hungary needed to secure the Brussels funds.
"In part because of the massive amount of election spending and in part because of the uncertain economic environment he's going to need financial support from the European Union more even than he needed before," Gyori said.
Orban's opponent, conservative Peter Marki-Zay, 49, who lost even in his own district, said the election had been "an unequal fight" given government control of public media.
Orban has insisted the vote was fair.
One failure for Orban, however was that a referendum on what Fidesz calls a "child protection" law banning the portrayal of LGBTQ people to under-18s, failed to garner the requisite votes.
But it was a fig-leaf referendum only as the law was already introduced last year.
Less than half of all general election voters cast valid ballots in the referendum.
Pardavi said on that point alone she was "very happy".
burs-jza/jm
G.Stevens--AMWN