{"id":602877,"date":"2026-04-12T22:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T22:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T22:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T22:26:12","slug":"victor-orban-concedes-defeat-in-hungary-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602877\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Orb\u00e1n concedes defeat in Hungary election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n \u2014 a powerful far-right figure allied with US President Donald Trump \u2014 has conceded defeat in the country’s election.<\/p>\n

After 16 years in power, Mr Orb\u00e1n said he would serve the country from opposition, with centre-right \u2060candidate Peter Magyar’s Tisza Party \u200bon course for a parliamentary super majority.<\/p>\n

Results based on 46 per cent of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza Party of Peter Magyar winning 135 seats \u2014 or a crucial two-thirds majority \u2014 in the 199-member parliament, ahead of Mr Orb\u00e1n’s Fidesz Party.<\/p>\n

\"Viktor<\/p>\n

Viktor Orb\u00e1n was Hungary’s prime minister for 16 years. (AP: Petr David Josek)<\/p>\n

“The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear,” Mr Orb\u00e1n said at the Fidesz campaign offices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The election result is painful for us, but clear.<\/p>\n

“The responsibility and possibility of governing was not given to us. I have congratulated the winner.”<\/p>\n

An end to Mr Orb\u00e1n’s government holds significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond.<\/p>\n

He was a powerful figure in the far-right movement allied with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

His loss will likely spell an end to Hungary’s adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro ($150 billion) loan to war-battered Ukraine blocked by Mr Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

\"Supporters<\/p>\n

Supporters of Peter Magyar celebrate after the parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary. (AP Photo: Darko Bandic)<\/p>\n

“Thank you, Hungary!” Mr Magyar posted on X, as thousands of his supporters thronged the banks of the Danube in Budapest, chanting “We got it! We did it!”<\/p>\n

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed Mr Magyar’s victory as a move by the country towards Europe.<\/p>\n

“Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight,” Ms von der Leyen said in a post on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Hungary has chosen Europe. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”<\/p>\n

Mr Magyer was also congratulated by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.<\/p>\n

The voter turnout by 6:30pm, local time, was over 77 per cent, according to the National Election Office \u2014 a record number in any election in Hungary’s post-communist history.<\/p>\n

After casting his vote, Mr Magyar told reporters that the election was “a choice between East or West, propaganda or honest public discourse, corruption or clean public life”.<\/p>\n

Serious challenger on the rise\"Peter<\/p>\n

Peter Magyar is the leader of the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party. (AP Photo: Denes Erdo)<\/p>\n

Mr Magyar rapidly rose to become Mr Orb\u00e1n’s most serious challenger. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old campaigned on issues affecting ordinary voters, including Hungary’s faltering public health care and transportation sectors and what he describes as rampant government corruption.<\/p>\n

A former insider within Mr Orb\u00e1n’s Fidesz, Mr Magyar broke with the party in 2024 and quickly formed Tisza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, he has toured Hungary relentlessly, holding rallies in settlements big and small in a campaign blitz that recently had him visiting up to six towns daily.<\/p>\n

Tisza won 30 per cent of the vote in European Parliament elections in 2024 and Mr Magyar took a seat as an EU MP.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tisza is a member of the European People’s Party, the mainstream, centre-right political family with leaders governing 12 of the EU’s 27 nations.<\/p>\n

Reuters\/AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n \u2014 a powerful far-right figure allied with US President Donald Trump \u2014 has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[293600,10366,43,293599,44,293601,293602,41,39,42,40,293598],"class_list":["post-602877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-concedes","tag-defeat","tag-headlines","tag-hungary-election","tag-news","tag-peter-magyar","tag-tisza","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-victor-orban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}