BUDAPEST, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Hungary's ruling Fidesz party won municipal elections on Sunday in a vote in which Hungarians passed a judgment on the government's work, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Sunday.
"With this (election) we, Hungarians .... have opened the way for achieving all of our joint goals to become a strong, respected country," Orban said on public television M1.
According to partial preliminary results at 1952 GMT from the National Election Committee, Fidesz got 31.4 percent of votes, compared to 12.4 percent for the opposition Socialists. Fidesz' result also includes votes cast for joint candidates with governing ally the Christian Democrats.
Fidesz won the mayoral contest in Budapest, for the first time since the collapse of communism in 1989.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Sandor Peto;)