Nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban won a fourth term in office on Sunday as his Fidesz party emerged triumphant, official figures showed, after a campaign overshadowed by the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
Addressing a jubilant crowd chanting his name, Orban said: "We have won a great victory - a victory so great you can perhaps see it from the moon and certainly from Brussels."
The 58-year-old, already the longest-serving head of government in the EU, was challenged by six united opposition parties seeking to roll back the "illiberal" revolution Orban's Fidesz party has pursued during 12 consecutive years in office.
But with more than three-quarters of votes counted, Fidesz was on 54% compared to 33% for the opposition coalition, according to results from the national election office - an unassailable lead.
Orban's administration has presided over repeated confrontations with the European Union, including over the neutering of the press and judiciary, and measures targeting the LGBTQ community - also the subject of a vote on Sunday.
Peter Marki-Zay, 49, the conservative leading the opposition list, had characterised the election as a battle against "unfair and impossible circumstances" after casting his vote earlier in the day.
The opposition has been all but absent from state media.
Diplomatically, Orban fell into line with EU support for Kyiv despite his long-standing closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But at home, Orban has struck a neutral and even anti-Ukrainian tone at times, refusing to let weapons for Ukraine cross Hungarian territory.
He cast himself as the protector of stability and accuses the opposition of "warmongering," alleging that they would boycott vital Russian energy imports - a charge that Marki-Zay denied.
Marki-Zay had tried to frame the vote as "a clear choice: Putin or Europe?"
MEP Marton Gyongyosi from the right-wing Jobbik party which is part of the opposition coalition, told the 444.hu site that "abuses" had taken place on Sunday and added: "This will have to be considered when talking about how the results of the elections can be respected."
Orban has dismissed such complaints and insisted the vote was fair.
For the first time more than 200 international observers monitored the election in Hungary, an EU member, along with thousands of domestic volunteers from both camps.
As well as electing MPs, Hungarians were voting in a referendum designed to elicit support for what Fidesz calls a "child protection" law banning the portrayal of LGBTQ people to under-18s.
