The level of invective in the Hungarian campaign has been more than disturbing, with fringe neo-fascists looking for an election breakthrough and sparing no one's blushes.

The top candidate for Jobbik, the neo-fascist party, scraped the barrel in the final days ahead of the vote. "So-called proud Hungarian Jews should go back to playing with their tiny little circumcised tails," said Christina Morvay, who may well win a seat in Strasbourg and Brussels.

Apart from the focus on whether a seat is won by Jobbik, which boasts black-shirted paramilitaries and has the large Roma minority trembling with fear, the broader picture is one of government meltdown and a landslide victory for the main rightwing opposition, Fidesz.

The two parties which led Hungary's democratic revolution 20 years ago, the Democratic Forum and the liberal free Democrats, may not get any seats.

Fidesz is tipped to rout the governing socialists on a greater scale even than in Britain. Hungary is among the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis. The centre-left government, already discredited, is at rock bottom.

Of the country's 22 seats, Fidesz is tipped to take 16, more than triple the projected five of the governing socialists. The Hungarian scenario illustrates the plight of the centre-left across most of Europe in magnified form. The only other seat could go to Jobbik, simplifying Hungary's political party landscape.

National elections are scheduled for next year, with Fidesz heading towards a two-thirds majority. Its leader, the former prime minister, Viktor Orban, has, like David Cameron, been calling for an early election.

But given the economic shambles he would inherit, Orban may be better advised to hold on.