Following his election win, Hungary’s opposition leader Péter Magyar has thanked the voters once again.
Last night, Hungary’s opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, won the election, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power. Celebrations went on to 5am and beyond.
“Thanks to every Hungarian at home and across the world!It is a huge honour that you have empowered us with the most votes ever to form a government and to work for a free, European, well-functioning and compassionate Hungary over the next four years. The Tisza government will be the government of every Hungarian person.”
Péter Magyar
With 98.94% of votes counted, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party is projected to get 138 seats in the new parliament, with just 55 for Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz and six for the far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) party. These numbers mean that the new government will have the critical two-thirds majority (133 or more seats) required to comprehensively overhaul the country’s laws, creating a real chance to genuinely break with the Orbán era.
In a victory speech to tens of thousands of supporters gathered along the Danube River in the capital, Budapest last night, Magyar said that his voters had rewritten history.
“Tonight, truth prevailed over lies. Today, we won because Hungarians didn’t ask what their homeland could do for them; they asked what they could do for their homeland. You found the answer. And you followed through.”
Péter Magyar
Magyar said that the results represented a historic mandate and pledged to unite all Hungarians. “In the history of democratic Hungary, this many people have never voted before, and no single party has ever received such a strong mandate as Tisza,” he stated.
The election was being closely watched around the world as a test of the resilience of the MAGA movement and the global far right, many of whom have long looked to Orbán as an inspiration and sought to follow his playbook.
Days before the election, US Vice President JD Vance had travelled to Budapest, saying that he had come to “help” Orbán. Donald Trump had also repeatedly endorsed Orbán, most recently on Friday when he vowed to bring US “economic might” to the country if Orbán was re-elected.
Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Hungary’s longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat in the country’s parliamentary election after partial official results showed Tisza party winning by a landslide.
He told his followers that he had “congratulated the victorious party” after a “painful” but “clear” result.
“The responsibility and possibility of governing was not given to us. We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well.”
Viktor Orbán
Orbán’s Defeat To Have Implications For Hungary
Orbán’s defeat will have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond. It will likely spell an end to Hungary’s adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro ($105bn) loan to war-battered Ukraine, which had been blocked by Orban.
Orbán’s 16-year grip on power has tested the EU system of governance meant to ensure peace through economic and political integration after the devastation of the first and second world wars. Claiming he sought to advance the national interests of Hungarians over strategy forged in Brussels, Orbán time and again vetoed collective action such as support for Ukraine after Russia’s all-out invasion.
Hungary is expected to align more closely with Western European allies In a recent interview, Magyar said that if elected, he would repair Hungary’s relationship with the EU. However, he has carefully avoided taking firm positions on a number of divisive issues during the election campaign – including Orbán’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies and whether Hungary should extend more support to Ukraine.
Defeat for Orban could also mean the eventual release of EU funds to Hungary that the bloc had suspended due to what Brussels said was Orban’s erosion of democratic standards. Orbán’s exit would also deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of his main ally in the EU and send shockwaves through Western right-wing circles, including US President Donald Trump’s MAGA followers.
EU leaders hailed Péter Magyar after his decisive election victory against Orbán, who many saw as a direct threat to Europe’s peace and prosperity.
In Hungary, a Tisza victory could open the way for reforms that the party says would aim to combat corruption and restore the independence of the judiciary and other institutions.
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