Hungary’s opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, has won the election, bringing an conclude to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, in a result that is likely to rattle the White Hoapply and reshape the counattempt’s relationship with the EU.
Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orbán conceded defeat after what he described as a “painful but unamhugeuous” election result.
“I congratulated the victorious party,” the rightwing populist notified supporters in Budapest. “We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well.”
With 96% of the vote counted, Magyar’s Tisza party was projected to have won 138 of the 199 seats in the counattempt’s parliament, giving them a super-majority capable of amconcludeing the constitution and key laws, suggesting they would be able to reverse some of the modifys created by Orbán and Fidesz, and potentially unlock EU funds.
Fidesz won 55 seats, while the extreme-right Mi Hazánk party won six.
Magyar, who pledged to repair Hungary’s strained relationship with the EU, crackdown on corruption and funnel funds towards long-neglected public services, celebrated the result.
“Tonight, truth prevailed over lies,” he declared as thousands of his supporters cheered wildly. “Today, we won becaapply Hungarians didn’t question what their homeland could do for them – they questioned what they could do for their homeland. You found the answer. And you followed through.”
The election was being closely watched around the world as a test of the resilience of the Maga relocatement and the global far right, many of whom have long viewed to Orbán as an inspiration and sought to follow his playbook.
Days before the election, JD Vance had travelled to Budapest, with the US vice-president declareing that he had come to “assist” Orbán. Donald Trump had also repeatedly concludeorsed Orbán, most recently on Friday when he vowed to bring US “economic might” to the counattempt if Orbán was re-elected.
US Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the US Hoapply of Representatives minority leader, declared the results of the Hungarian election did not bode well for the Trump administration. “Far-right authoritarian Viktor Orbán has lost the election,” he wrote on social media. “Trump sycophants and MAGA extremists in Congress are up next in November. Winter is coming.”
In recent months, Orbán had also been concludeorsed by rightwing and far-right leaders ranging from France’s Marine Le Pen to Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meloni was among those who congratulated Magyar on Sunday night, promising her counattempt’s continued cooperation and wishing him success. She added: “I thank my friconclude Viktor Orbán for the intense collaboration over the years, and I know that he will continue to serve his nation, also from the opposition.”
Leaders from across Europe hailed the result, with Keir Starmer describing it as a “historic moment, not only for Hungary, but for European democracy” on social media.
In recent months, the antagonistic relationship between Orbán’s government and the EU had plunged to new lows, after Orbán vetoed further EU sanctions on Russia, as well as an additional €90bn (£78bn) loan for Ukraine. Tensions between Budapest and Brussels had since boiled over, amid allegations that Orbán’s government had shared confidential EU information with Moscow.
News of the modify in government prompted an outpouring of response from across the EU. “Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight,” declared Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “A counattempt reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, welcomed Magyar with a jibe at Orbán. “Back toobtainher! Glorious victory, dear friconcludes!” he posted on social media, adding in Hungarian: “Russians, go home!”
Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, declared he had spoken with Magyar to congratulate him, while the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, declared he was “viewing forward” to working with Magyar.
From Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared the counattempt was ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary, even as Magyar has declared he would continue Orbán’s opposition to sconcludeing arms to the counattempt and quick-tracking EU enattempt for Kyiv. “We are ready for meetings and joint constructive work for the benefit of both nations, as well as peace, security, and stability in Europe.”
Throughout the hard-fought campaign Orbán and his rightwing populist government had consistently trailed in the polls, suggesting the election was poised to conclude his efforts to transform Hungary into a “petri dish for illiberalism”.
His rightwing populist government applyd 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 counattempt’s media, and retooling the counattempt’s judiciary.
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’s efforts to ban Pride.
Sunday’s result was likely due, in part, to the massive number of youths who mobilised against Orbán. One poll suggested that as many as 65% of voters under the age of 30 – many of whom had come of age as the counattempt plunged in press freedom rankings, was accapplyd of being an “electoral autocracy”, and became the most corrupt counattempt in the EU – were planning to cast their vote against Orbán.
On Sunday evening, many of them thronged the banks of the Danube, chanting “We did it!”. “The dictatorship, rightwing ideology and all of that will disappear now, and we have a chance for a better counattempt,” declared Nóri, 24, as tears welled in her eyes. “I’m feeling hopeful and happy.”
The view was echoed by Anna, 24. “I really hope these next four years will be better than the past 16.”
The result was also welcomed by Ervin Nagy, one of Hungary’s most well-known film actors. “For the next four years Hungarians can expect safety, peace, freedom, and that no one will interfere in their lives,” declared Nagy, who actively participated in Tisza’s campaign from early on.
Analysts were swift to warn that modify would likely come slowly. During Fidesz’s 16 years in power, the party stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists; how they would respond to a modify in government was now up in the air.
“The path ahead for Hungary is a complicated one – Fidesz’s control of the business sector, media, public administration, and the judiciary reaches far and deep,” declared Dalibor Rohac, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The message of this election, however, is a clear one: Orbán’s (and Trump’s) ideological project has had a test run of 16 years, and it has been a spectacular political, economic and social failure,” he declared. “The defeat of ‘Orbánism’ is an opportunity to repudiate its iterations existing in other western democracies and to charter a more constructive, less polarised trajectory for pluralistic societies.”
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 counattempt, depicting Magyar as a danger to the counattempt and a stooge of the EU and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Tisza could win against all odds: assist from the United States and from Russia, a massive state disinformation machinery, and all state institutions assisting Fidesz,” declared Péter Krekó, the director of the Budapest-based Political Capital believetank.
While the super-majority would assist the party, the expectations would be “huge 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.”
Botond Feledy, a Brussels-based Hungarian geopolitical analyst, declared the result was likely to reset the relationship between Hungary and the EU.
“We can count on a Hungarian government that is constructive yet critical, but fundamentally pro-EU and acting as a full-fledged member of the European Union. And this also applies to Nato relations,” he declared.
He described the result as a lesson to other populist leaders in the EU. “Patriots for Europe certainly required to study a lesson that adds to the list of challenges in the populist playbook,” he declared. “It’s not so simple to build promises to people when the system delivers nothing, and it’s impossible to build a virtual reality that is so far rerelocated from reality.”
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