The outcome of the mayoral by-election demonstrated that inciting conflict is in the political interests of Jobbik and other far-right organisations. Oszkár Juhász, the Jobbik candidate, was elected mayor by winning one-third of votes and Tamás Eszes, the candidate of Defence Force (Véderõ), received 10.5 per cent of the votes, which means that together far-right candidates picked up almost 45 per cent ... Juhász – who brought up the rear in the 2010 local government elections with just 5.8 per cent – was the only candidate with the official support of a party. That worked to his advantage rather than disadvantage. ... It may have contributed to Juhász’s success that he offered the village’s residents a relatively “clear-headed”, “moderate” alternative compared to Eszes. As the Jobbik politicians implied at the press conference to evaluate the result, the party wishes to pursue a pragmatic policy of Roma integration in Gyöngyöspata designed to ease the conflict. All political players are forced to adopt pragmatic politics when they gain positions of leadership. It remains questionable, however, whether Jobbik will find other means to gain local and national political positions in the future than strident anti-Roma rhetoric in a social medium where there is visibly and measurably strong demand for such rhetoric.