By Marton Dunai and Krisztina Than
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's Fidesz, which scored a sweeping victory at Sunday's election, said on Monday it would focus on creating jobs while the far-right Jobbik promised "spectacular" politics to clamp down on "Gypsy crime."
The leader of Jobbik, which bagged one in every six votes to win nearly as many seats as the punished ruling Socialists in Hungary's swing to the right, said it would not be invisible in the next parliament with its new-found clout.
The expectation on Fidesz to act quickly to put Hungary on the path to sustainable growth after near financial collapse will be huge, and investors are wary about whether Jobbik will try to hamper reforms.
Fidesz's Viktor Orban, Hungary's next prime minister, told supporters they had "defeated hopelessness" when he declared victory. He will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. British time.
Fidesz won 206 of the 386 parliamentary seats in Sunday's vote and has a good chance of extending its gains to two-thirds in the second round on April 25, which would put it in a position to pass deep reforms and even modify a constitution defined 20 years ago after the collapse of communism.
Daily Nepszabadsag said on Monday Fidesz was "one step away from two-thirds" while right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet hailed Fidesz' victory saying the party was "at the gates" of winning two-thirds majority in the next parliament.
The Budapest Stock Exchange's main index firmed 1.65 percent by 8:43 a.m. British time on Monday, out-performing other bourses in Central Europe. The forint strengthened by 0.4 percent versus the euro to 265.80, also out-performing other currencies in the region.
Fidesz vice chairman Lajos Kosa told state television M1 the main focus of Fidesz' policy would be jobs and the economy.
"What ... could be seen (what voters wanted) was creating jobs, bringing order, public safety, putting the budget and healthcare into order -- so there are the tasks which somehow need to be thought over and put in order," he said.
MARKET SCRUTINY
Jobbik Chairman Gabor Vona told the same programme: "We are not preparing to conduct peaceful and almost invisible politics with this 17 percent (result)."
"I am preparing, as is Jobbik, that we will conduct very distinct and very spectacular politics, not only in words and appearances, but ... we expect results from these moves."
Leveraging discontent over the economic crisis and Hungary's large Roma minority, Jobbik secured 26 seats, against the 28 seats won by the Socialists, while the green liberal LMP got five seats. The remaining 121 seats will be decided on April 25.
Vona said told M1 his party would work on a "solution to the problems around Gypsy-Hungarian coexistence. That means eradicating Gypsy crime."
Economists say Fidesz, which was last in power between 1998 and 2002, will need to implement structural reforms to reduce the local government sector and make the health and education systems more efficient to put Hungary back on the growth track after a deep recession last year.
Fidesz has revealed only sketchy policy plans but signalled it wanted tax cuts and reduce the budget deficit in the coming years, even though it also said a higher deficit than the target of 3.8 percent this year could be safely financed.
It had also said it would seek a new precautionary financing agreement with international lenders the IMF and EU.
"We expect the new government to pursue policies broadly in line with those of the outgoing government, with chances of it implementing more populist of the pre-election promises limited by the scrutiny of the markets and its willingness to negotiate a new IMF-led program," Goldman Sachs said in a morning note.
"Policy continuity will have a positive impact on the currency and the economy and should shift it towards a 'good' equilibrium of currency stability, recovery in growth, and policies geared towards long-term fiscal sustainability."
(Reporting by Krisztina Than, Sandor Peto and Marton Dunai; Editing by Alison Williams)
