In a setback for his allies in Russia and the United States, Hungary’s veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban conceded defeat on Sunday after the upstart opposition Tisza party won a landslide election. Trump’s presidential residence. Results based on 46% of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 135 seats – or a crucial two-thirds majority – in the 199-member parliament, ahead of Orban’s Fidesz party.
At the Fidesz campaign headquarters, Orban stated, “The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear.” We are hurt by the election result, but it is clear. “The responsibility and possibility of governing was not given to us. The winner has been congratulated by me. According to pollsters, a record number of people would vote, and Hungarian television showed long lines outside of some Budapest voting stations. Data at 1630 GMT, half an hour before polls were due to close, showed 77.8% of voters casting their ballots, up from 67.8% four years earlier.
If the final results confirm the early readings, an end to Orban’s period in government after 16 years in power would have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond.It would likely spell an end to Hungary’s adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan to war-battered Ukraine blocked by Orban.
A defeat for Orban could also result in the release of EU funds that Brussels had suspended for Hungary due to Orban’s alleged erosion of democratic standards. Orban’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 the White House.
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.
However, the extent of these reforms will be determined by Tisza’s ability to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to undo much of Orban’s legacy. After three years of economic stagnation, skyrocketing living costs, and reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth, many Hungarians have grown increasingly weary of Orban, 62, who carved out a model of an “illiberal democracy” seen as a blueprint by Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and its admirers in Europe. Tisza’s leader Magyar appears to have successfully tapped into this frustration.
Casting his vote for Tisza in the Hungarian capital, Mihaly Bacsi, 27, said the country needed change.
“We need an improvement in public mood, there is too much tension in many areas and the current government only fuels these sentiments,” he said.
Zsuzsa, a second voter, stated that she desired continuity. “I would really like if all the results that have been achieved in recent years remain – and I am terribly afraid of the war,” she said, referring to the conflict raging in Ukraine, Hungary’s eastern neighbour.
Orban sought to cast Sunday’s election as a choice between “war and peace”. During campaigning, the government blanketed the country with signs warning that Magyar would drag Hungary into Russia’s war with Ukraine, something he strongly denies.
– Additional reporting by Krisztina Than, Anita Komuves, Lili Bayer, Thomas Holdstock, Judith Langowski, writing by Justyna Pawlak, editing by Alexander Smith and Gareth Jones
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