In A Historic Landslide, People In Hungary Have Voted Out The Far-Right Prime Minister Who Ruled For 16 Years
People in Hungary voted out Orbán, giving the opposition Tisza party 138 of 199 seats in parliament, or 53.6% of the vote.
People in Hungary have voted out far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán who held power for 16 years, handing a landslide victory to opposition leader Péter Magyar in what is being called one of the most significant political upheavals in Europe in years.
Orbán, who founded Hungary's ruling Fidesz party in 1988, became prime minister in 2010, and in the years since, he and his party took control of Hungary's media, deployed propaganda to vilify political opponents and consolidated power over institutions such as courts that are designed to act as checks on the government.
He maintained warm ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and repeatedly frustrated EU efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, while refusing to end Hungary's dependence on Russian energy.
He made regular use of Hungary's veto power to block EU decisions and block financial assistance to Ukraine, most recently vetoing a 90 billion euro loan to Kyiv.
He is also a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
But on Sunday, April 13, people in Hungary voted out Orbán, giving the opposition Tisza party 138 of 199 seats in parliament, or 53.6% of the vote, despite Russian interference in the election.
Orbán's Fidesz won 55 seats with 37.8%.
Turnout was nearly 80%, a record in any vote in Hungary's post-communist history.
The leader of Tisza, Péter Magya, is a lawyer who was also a member of Orbán's Fidesz party.
He entered the political spotlight in early 2024 after Hungary's president pardoned a man who had tried to cover up child sex abuse.
Magyar went public with his outrage, quit all his government-linked positions and began organizing protests that drew hundreds of thousands of people.
He then took over the then little-known party called Tisza and entered it into the June 2024 European Parliament elections, where it came second with nearly 30% of the vote.
Magyar campaigned around a single idea that Orbán was not acting in Hungarians' interests, and that corruption had to stop.
He focused on everyday issues — healthcare, public transport, living costs — rather than the culture war issues Orbán used to keep his base fired up.
Orbán conceded defeat less than three hours after polls closed, calling the result "painful."
Meanwhile, Magyar addressed tens of thousands of jubilant supporters along the Danube River in Budapest, with speakers playing Frank Sinatra's "My Way."
Magyar has promised to restore Hungary's independent courts and free press, rebuild the country's relationships with the EU and NATO, and impose a two-term limit on the prime minister's office.
With 138 of 199 seats — a "supermajority" — he has the numbers to amend Hungary's constitution.
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