Version imprimableAmid record abstention rates the election saw a clear victory for the nationalist right of the Alliance of Young Democrats - Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESz-MPP) of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Resorting when necessary to naked populism, Orban waged a campaign against price rises and for an end to privatization, with an anti-European tinge.
Inside the ruling coalition the dominant post-Stalinist Socialist Party (MSzP) was punished after presiding over a monetary crisis at the beginning of the year and imposing an austerity policy which reduced still further social expenditure, while its small liberal ally, the Alliance of Free Democrats (SzDSz) increased its score. The small far left party, Munkáspárt (which emerged from a split in the MSzP) was unable to appear as a credible alternative to the social liberal government.
The far right Hungarian Party for Justice and Life (MIEP), which elected 14 deputies in 1998, continued its decline, which was the good news of this election.
| parliamentary 2002 | European 2004 | seats in EP | |
| abstention | 29.57 | 61.53 | |
| Munkáspárt (MP, far left) | 2.16 | 1.83 | 0 |
| MSzP (soc dem, government) | 42.05 | 34.30 | 9 |
| SzDSz (liberal, government) | 5.54 | 7.74 | 2 |
| FIDESz-MPP (nationalist right) | 41.07 | 47.40 | 12 |
| MDF and partners (Christian Democrat) | 4.65 | 5.33 | 1 |
| MIEP (far right) | 4.37 | 2.35 | 0 |
| MNSz (far right) | - | 0.66 | 0 |
