A week ago yesterday, Ferenc Gyurcsany, the man who would be Hungary's Tony Blair, led his socialist-liberal coalition to victory in the first round of parliamentary elections. He is poised to finish the job this Sunday and become Hungary's first post-communist prime minister to win re-election.

It was, however, only his second most impressive triumph in the past two years. The more surprising win came in August 2004 when he was named prime minister.