Democracy Digest: Sex, Drugs and Hungarian Elections

Fidesz campaign manager Lajos Kosa explained his party's disappointing results with the telling words: "Democracy still exists in Hungary."

Gellert Rajcsanyi, editor of conservative weekly Mandiner — which belongs to the government-funded Central European Press and Media Foundation — went further.

"Competition returned to Hungarian political life, and competition is good and healthy," he wrote, declaring the central, unipolar power of Fidesz over and a two-party system restored.

In this new world, he added, the government will have to relearn how to engage in dialogue and make compromises.

"We wake up in a new country," is how Nepszava, a newspaper critical of the government, celebrated the result in an editorial.

We wake up in a new country.

- Nepszava editorial

Many in Hungary heralded a new era after a rainbow coalition of opposition forces stretching from the far-right Jobbik party to the neoliberal Democratic Coalition and emerging centrist force Momentum broke Fidesz's monolithic rule.

The question is what the opposition will do with their victories.

Budapest Mayor-elect Gergely Karacsony (whose name means Christmas) promises a free, green, people-friendly capital, with "hospitals instead of stadiums".

But he may have little room for manoeuvre since the government controls and finances most major developments in the city.

A big talking point this week was whether the government — and Orban, in particular — will seek to punish Budapest, to prove to voters they had better stay loyal to Fidesz.

First reactions do not justify these fears.

"We have to accept the decision of Budapest, and the government will cooperate with the newly elected mayor," Orban said.