New Hungary Government Taking Shape : East Europe: The Democratic Forum signs up two former rivals as coalition partners. The Free Democrats are looking like the loyal opposition.

Although the first round of Hungary’s intricate election was anything but conclusive, the nation’s first democratically elected government is beginning to take shape.

The center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum, which had a narrow lead after the first round of voting March 25, has tackled Round 2 with organization and gusto, signing up two former rivals as coalition partners and casting themselves as obvious victors in Sunday’s finale.

In contrast, the Alliance of Free Democrats, which finished a close second against the forum, has stopped talking of a decisive comeback in the runoff.

Janos Kis, leader of the liberal, pro-Western Free Democrats, has instead been extolling the virtues of a strong opposition.

The principal Hungarian newspapers have been lobbying for a broad coalition in which the Forum and the Free Democrats would cooperate to ensure that their nearly equal parliamentary delegations do not fall into constant bickering that could delay reform and result in a perpetual government crisis.

Before the two-stage balloting began, both leading parties were keeping the door open to cooperation. But as the political climate has changed to slightly favor the Forum, the two parties have revised their views on whether there are advantages to an alliance of adversaries.

“Our joining forces would be like the Republicans and the Democrats in the United States deciding to form a government together,” Forum spokesman Csaba Kiss said Thursday. “In politics, anything can happen. We’re not excluding the possibility of coalition, but I see that as very unlikely.”

More than two dozen parties fielded candidates in the first round, which resulted in a split vote that determined fewer than half the 365 seats in Parliament.

The Forum, which finished first, received 24.7% of the vote, followed by the Free Democrats with 21.4%.

Despite the support of other first-round contenders, the Forum could still lack a majority after the runoff, forcing a compromise with either the Free Democrats or the reformed Communists, with whom both sides have refused to do business.

The Communist-turned-Socialist Party instigated Hungary’s peaceful “revolution from above,” but its 40-year monopoly on power has been blamed for Hungary’s current economic crisis. There is double-digit inflation, rising unemployment and a foreign debt of $21 billion, the highest in Europe on a per capita basis.

The new Socialists, campaigning for retention of the only experienced government leaders, finished fourth in the first round, with almost 11% of the vote. The Independent Smallholders received 11.8% and finished third, and the Christian Democrats received 6.5%. This week the Christian Democrats pledged to support the Forum in return for a role in the new government.

The democratic youth group known as Fidesz, which received nearly 9% in the first round, has joined forces with the Free Democrats.

Forum spokesman Kiss said that no decisions have been made about who is to be prime minister if the coalition wins. But he conceded that the only real contender is party leader Joszef Antall.

Posters of the dour veteran of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, who will be 58 on Election Day, hang from light standards and signposts.

Forum politicians have stepped up their schedule of rallies in the final days, with speakers and horn-blaring auto caravans keeping Antall’s name and image in the minds of the electorate.

Kis, the Free Democrats’ leader, predicted after the first round that his party would be the eventual winner. But it has been showing a lower profile in recent days, in contrast with the aggressive campaigning of Forum candidates.

In an article in this week’s issue of the opposition newspaper Speaking Out, Kis argues for development of a strong out-of-power political force to keep the new government in check.

“Both the Free Democrats and the Forum are devoted to a multiparty system, but that is not enough to ensure democracy,” the 46-year-old philosopher and former dissident wrote. “The rights of the opposition must be ensured.”

Jon Schnur, a Washington political consultant who was an adviser to the Free Democrats, said the liberal party no longer predicts a turnaround.

“They know it would take a miracle to gain a majority and form their own government,” he said.

The Free Democrats are pressing for an influential role for the opposition. They also appear to have become more open to the idea of a coalition. Kis has said that such a “marriage of inconvenience” could work if both sides were committed to it.

Inexperience with multi-party elections and a hopelessly antiquated telephone system prevented the results of the March 25 vote from being tabulated until three days afterward.

Whatever the outcome, negotiations among potential coalition partners will likely take weeks before a new Cabinet is named, as the parties must first decide how the government is to be structured.

But in another indication of the Forum’s new optimism, the party’s 80-member national leadership council plans to convene Tuesday to propose a prime minister and present its idea of how the Cabinet posts should be divided among the victors.