Hungary\u2019s opposition Tisza party, led by P\u00e9ter Magyar, has won the election, bringing an end to Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16-year grip on power, in a result that is likely to rattle the White House and reshape the country\u2019s relationship with the EU.<\/p>\n
Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orb\u00e1n conceded defeat after what he described as a \u201cpainful but unambiguous\u201d election result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI congratulated the victorious party,\u201d the rightwing populist told supporters in Budapest. \u201cWe are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
With 96% of the vote counted, Magyar\u2019s Tisza party was projected to have won 138 of the 199 seats in the country\u2019s parliament, giving them a super-majority capable of amending the constitution and key laws, suggesting they would be able to reverse some of the changes made by Orb\u00e1n and Fidesz, and potentially unlock EU funds.<\/p>\n
Fidesz won 55 seats, while the extreme-right Mi Haz\u00e1nk party won six.<\/p>\n
People celebrate in the streets after the announcement of partial results of the Hungarian parliamentary election in Budapest. Photograph: D\u00e9nes Erd\u0151s\/AP<\/p>\n
Magyar, who pledged to repair Hungary\u2019s strained relationship with the EU, crackdown on corruption and funnel funds towards long-neglected public services, celebrated the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, truth prevailed over lies,\u201d he said as thousands of his supporters cheered wildly. \u201cToday, we won because Hungarians didn\u2019t ask what their homeland could do for them \u2013 they asked what they could do for their homeland. You found the answer. And you followed through.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/a> to Orb\u00e1n as an inspiration and sought to follow his playbook.<\/p>\n Days before the election, JD Vance had travelled to Budapest, with the US vice-president saying that he<\/a> had come to \u201chelp\u201d Orb\u00e1n. Donald Trump had also repeatedly endorsed Orb\u00e1n, most recently on Friday when he vowed to bring US \u201ceconomic might\u201d to the country if Orb\u00e1n was re-elected.<\/p>\n US Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the US House of Representatives minority leader, said the results of the Hungarian election did not bode well for the Trump administration. \u201cFar-right authoritarian Viktor Orb\u00e1n has lost the election,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cTrump sycophants and MAGA extremists in Congress are up next in November. Winter is coming.\u201c<\/p>\n In recent months, Orb\u00e1n had also been endorsed by rightwing and far-right leaders ranging from France\u2019s Marine Le Pen to Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni and Israel\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n Meloni was among those who congratulated Magyar on Sunday night, promising her country\u2019s continued cooperation and wishing him success. She added: \u201cI thank my friend Viktor Orb\u00e1n for the intense collaboration over the years, and I know that he will continue to serve his nation, also from the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n Leaders from across Europe<\/a> hailed the result, with Keir Starmer describing it as a \u201chistoric moment, not only for Hungary, but for European democracy\u201d on social media.<\/p>\n In recent months, the antagonistic relationship between Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government and the EU had plunged to new lows, after Orb\u00e1n vetoed further EU sanctions on Russia, as well as an additional \u20ac90bn (\u00a378bn) loan for Ukraine. Tensions between Budapest and Brussels had since boiled over, amid allegations that Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government had shared confidential EU information with Moscow.<\/p>\n News of the change in government prompted an outpouring of response from across the EU. \u201cEurope\u2019s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight,\u201d said Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. \u201cA country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Tusk, Poland\u2019s prime minister, welcomed Magyar with a jibe at Orb\u00e1n. \u201cBack together! Glorious victory, dear friends!\u201d he posted on social media, adding in Hungarian: \u201cRussians, go home!\u201d<\/p>\n Emmanuel Macron, France\u2019s president, said he had spoken with Magyar to congratulate him, while the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he was \u201clooking forward\u201d to working with Magyar.<\/p>\n From Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country was ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary, even as Magyar has said he would continue Orb\u00e1n\u2019s opposition to sending arms to the country and fast-tracking EU entry for Kyiv. \u201cWe are ready for meetings and joint constructive work for the benefit of both nations, as well as peace, security, and stability in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n One poll suggested that as many as 65% of voters under the age of 30 were planning to cast their vote against Orb\u00e1n. Photograph: D\u00e9nes Erd\u0151s\/AP<\/p>\n Throughout the hard-fought campaign Orb\u00e1n and his rightwing populist government had consistently trailed in the polls, suggesting the election was poised to end to his efforts to transform Hungary<\/a> into a \u201cpetri dish for illiberalism\u201d.<\/p>\n His rightwing populist government used its time in office to steadily whittle away at the checks and balances that constrained its power: rewriting election laws to its own benefit, manoeuvring to put loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of the country\u2019s media, and retooling the country\u2019s judiciary.<\/p>\n Ahead of the election, as the government stepped up its efforts to clamp down on dissent, local resistance swelled, bursting into public view as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Budapest in June in defiance of the government\u2019s efforts to ban Pride.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s result was likely due, in part, to the massive number of youths who mobilised against Orb\u00e1n. One poll<\/a> suggested that as many as 65% of voters under the age of 30 \u2013 many of whom had come of age as the country plunged in press freedom rankings<\/a>, was accused of being an \u201celectoral autocracy\u201d, and became the most corrupt country in the EU<\/a> \u2013 were planning to cast their vote against Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n On Sunday evening, many of them thronged the banks of the Danube, chanting \u201cWe did it!\u201d. \u201cThe dictatorship, rightwing ideology and all of that will disappear now, and we have a chance for a better country,\u201d said N\u00f3ri, 24, as tears welled in her eyes. \u201cI\u2019m feeling hopeful and happy.\u201d<\/p>\n The view was echoed by Anna, 24. \u201cI really hope these next four years will be better than the past 16.\u201d<\/p>\n The result was also welcomed by Ervin Nagy, one of Hungary\u2019s most well-known film actors. \u201cFor the next four years Hungarians can expect safety, peace, freedom, and that no one will interfere in their lives,\u201d said Nagy, who actively participated in Tisza\u2019s campaign from early on.<\/p>\n Analysts were swift to warn that change would likely come slowly. During Fidesz\u2019s 16 years in power, the party stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists; how they would respond to a change in government was now up in the air.<\/p>\n \u201cThe path ahead for Hungary is a complicated one \u2013 Fidesz\u2019s control of the business sector, media, public administration, and the judiciary reaches far and deep,\u201d said Dalibor Rohac, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message of this election, however, is a clear one: Orb\u00e1n\u2019s (and Trump\u2019s) ideological project has had a test run of 16 years, and it has been a spectacular political, economic and social failure,\u201d he said. \u201cThe defeat of \u2018Orb\u00e1nism\u2019 is an opportunity to repudiate its iterations existing in other western democracies and to charter a more constructive, less polarised trajectory for pluralistic societies.\u201d<\/p>\n Others pointed to all that Magyar and Tisza had been up against. In the lead up to the election, billboards generated with AI and paid for by the government became a mainstay across the country, depicting Magyar as a danger to the country and a stooge of the EU and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n \u201cTisza could win against all odds: help from the United States and from Russia, a massive state disinformation machinery, and all state institutions helping Fidesz,\u201d said P\u00e9ter Krek\u00f3, the director of the Budapest-based Political Capital thinktank.<\/p>\n While the super-majority would help the party, the expectations would be \u201chuge and it will be difficult to deliver on some campaign promises due to fiscal constraints. But given that it was dominantly an anti-Fidesz vote, the new government can manage expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n Botond Feledy, a Brussels-based Hungarian geopolitical analyst, said the result was likely to reset the relationship between Hungary and the EU.<\/p>\n