Right-of-Center Party Tops Hungarian Vote : Elections: The Democratic Forum gets 42%, reflecting a wave of conservatism in Eastern Europe.

The right-of-center Hungarian Democratic Forum won unexpectedly strong endorsement in Sunday’s election finale and claimed the role of pathfinder in Hungary’s march toward democracy and capitalism.

The party’s clear victory over rival liberals from the Alliance of Free Democrats reflected a burgeoning wave of conservatism that is washing over Eastern Europe in the wake of socialism’s retreat.

With virtually all of the ballots counted early today, the Forum had 42.7% of the overall vote, compared to less than 24% for the Free Democrats, who were seen as the front-runners before the first round two weeks ago.

The independent Smallholders Party, which has pledged its support to the Forum, won 11% of the vote, and the Christian Democrats, who are also expected to join in a conservative governing coalition, captured 5.4%.

That gives the Forum and its allies well over the 50% share needed to control the 386-member Parliament and determine who will govern Hungary now that it has closed the book on the age of communism.

In contrast with a nationwide breakdown in vote-reporting after the first balloting round March 25, the electorate’s clear preference for the Forum was obvious a couple of hours after the polls closed at 6 p.m. Sunday.

“We are not the real winners. The Hungarian people are,” Forum leader Joszef Antall, widely expected to be the next prime minister, declared at a press conference that quickly took on the air of a victory party.

“We have to believe in ourselves to lead the country out of crisis,” declared the earnest historian who turned 58 on Sunday.

Forum candidates won 165 seats in the Parliament, compared with 92 for the Free Democrats, 43 for the Smallholders, 33 for the Socialists and 21 each for the Christian Democrats and the youth group Fidesz.

The Forum enjoyed only a three-point lead over the Free Democrats after the first ballot two weeks ago. An aggressive 11th-hour campaign was credited with pushing the party so far forward on Sunday.

The Forum’s more cautious approach to economic reform may also have appealed more to Hungarians who are increasingly worried that radical actions could spark even higher inflation, already into the double-digits this year. Citizens also are worried about crippling unemployment as unprofitable factories are forced to close in the air of competition.

Free Democratic candidates pushed for a head-on approach in reshaping the economy and chipping away at $20 billion in foreign debts, the highest per capita in Europe.

The Forum had won slightly less than 25% of the popular vote in the first round in March, followed by the Free Democrats with 21%.

Despite the convincing second-round victory, it may take several days or weeks of coalition talks before a new Cabinet is named to succeed the caretaker Communists, who suffered badly in Sunday’s balloting.

The Socialist Party, which was formed by reform-oriented elements of the old Communist Party, won only 8% of the vote Sunday, which will relegate them to a minority opposition role behind the Free Democrats.

Communist reformers like Imre Pozsgay and Foreign Minister Gyula Horn helped bring about Hungary’s peaceful “revolution from above” last year. The Hungarians are anxious to shed all vestiges of the Communist system they blame for today’s economic crisis, and the major parties have refused to work with the surviving Communist members of Parliament.

Pozsgay was roundly trounced in the first ballot, and Horn lost to a Forum candidate in the runoff.

Two prominent members of the Free Democrats, Peter Tolgyessy and Gascar Miklos Tamas, also suffered surprising defeat in the runoff balloting.

Free Democratic leader Janos Kis told reporters that Sunday’s outcome was “much worse than we expected” but promised that his party would put partisan considerations aside in Parliament to ensure a better future for the nation’s 12.5 million citizens.

While proposals by the Forum and the Free Democrats differ, there are many resemblances in their efforts to overcome four decades of monopoly socialism and centralization. The Free Democrats have appeared more willing to accept the hardships likely to be imposed during transition to a market economy.

The two leading parties’ differing views on the pace at which reforms should be introduced could pit large factions in Parliament against each other, stalling the reform measures that Western economists say are needed immediately.

Major newspapers and some prominent business leaders in Hungary have pressed for a “grand coalition” of the Forum and the Free Democrats, to ensure the swiftest transition to democracy and a free-market economy.

However, Forum spokesman Csaba Kiss said even before Sunday’s vote that such an alliance of adversaries would be attempted only as a last resort, and likened it to the Republican and Democratic parties of the United States joining forces to move into the White House.

The turnout for March’s initial ballot in Hungary’s first free elections in more than 40 years was more than 65% nationwide and well over 70% in Budapest.

NEXT STEP Despite the Hungarian Democratic Forum’s victory Sunday, it may take several days or weeks of coalition talks before a new Cabinet is named. The first round of elections put the Democratic Forum and the Alliance of Free Democrats in the lead, but neither polled a majority, forcing Sunday’s second round. The liberal Free Democrats, who want a speedy transition to a market economy, favor a coalition. But the Democratic Forum has said it will only join forces in a “national emergency.”

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