BUDAPEST — An electoral showing of 5.55 percent may seem insignificant.
But the number has created a buzz in Budapest — among Jews and non-Jews alike.
The number corresponds to the vote that the extreme-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party garnered in the first round of Hungarian elections on Sunday of last week — just surpassing the 5 percent minimum needed to enter Parliament.
The stunning result for an overtly anti-Semitic party has sent tremors throughout the Jewish community.
It is particularly ominous to Hungary’s approximately 20,000 Holocaust survivors.
“If they play the Jewish card in Parliament, once again it becomes a public issue — who is Jewish, who is not,” said Edit Salamon, 62, a retired social work teacher.
The idea that one’s Jewishness might become a public issue is especially sensitive for her: When she was 8 years old in 1944, Salamon and her family were herded into the Budapest Ghetto.
Of course, it is still unclear how much influence the Justice and Life Party will wield.
The future government’s composition — whether it will be tilted to the left or right — is still up in the air, pending Sunday’s second and final round of voting.
It is now a two-horse race between the ruling Socialists and the right-of-center Young Democrats, who in the first round captured 32 and 28 percent of the vote, respectively. It is unlikely that either will snare a clear majority in the next round, which will force them to seek coalition partners.
Despite the uncertainties regarding the upcoming voting, two things are already certain.
The first is that no matter who leads the country, Hungary will remain among the Central European front-runners to join NATO and the European Union. The abundance of foreign investors and a national consensus for Western integration will insure that.
Secondly, the Hungarian Justice and Life Party’s hate-mongering leader, Istvan Csurka, will get more prime-time exposure.
Csurka, who has made numerous anti-Semitic speeches in the past, will be aided by a left-leaning Hungarian media that insists on grant-ing full coverage to all parliamentary factions, regardless of size.
Csurka and other populists shrewdly capitalized on popular disillusionment with the country’s change to a free-market economy.
Overall, the economy looks strong as a result of that transition. But just the same, the standard of living continues to decline for the vast majority of Hungarians.
Many of those now impoverished feel betrayed by the ruling Socialists and their junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats.
The Socialists cleverly pinned most of the blame on the liberal Free Democrats. That party — comprising intellectuals, including a number of high-profile Jews — failed to spotlight their achievements and made a poor showing in the first round of voting.
With the traditional conservative parties in disarray, much of the public gave its support to the Young Democrats and the right-wing Smallholders Party, which garnered 14 percent of the vote.
But last week, officials from both the British and German embassies reportedly warned the Young Democrats not to ally themselves with the Smallholders, who are seen as not much better than Csurka’s Justice and Life Party.
In separate sessions on Friday of last week, representatives of the Socialists and Young Democrats met with Jewish leaders. The Young Democrats, in particular, assured the Jewish leadership that they wouldn’t cooperate with extremists.
Some are speaking of a “grand coalition” between the Young Democrats and the Socialists.
As for the 100,000-strong Hungarian Jews, expect them to pull for the status quo — the Socialists.
“I’ve got my fingers crossed,” said 66-year-old Zsuzsa Kepecs, another Holocaust survivor. “Here absolutely anything can happen.”