Hungary's center-right party reclaimed the right to govern April 11, winning over 50 percent of the vote and handing the ruling Socialists a humiliating defeat. Extreme rightists backed by black-clad paramilitary troops took more than 15 percent to come in third.

The strong gains of the extreme right Jobbik party, whose platform blames Gypsies and Jews for the country's problems, represented the greatest political shake-up of the election, shattering Hungary's traditional post-communist status quo of a parliament dominated by the center-right and the left.

"I can see that there is complete joy but at the same time I know deep in my heart that I stand before the biggest task of my life," Fidesz leader Viktor Orban, who was prime minister in 1998-2002, said at the party's election headquarters in Budapest's downtown Vorosmarty Square. "People voted for unity, order and security."