Orbán’s 16-year Rule Over Hungary Ends in Crushing Election Defeat
By MAX GRIERA AND JAMIE DETTMER
The Hungarian prime minister concedes to Péter Magyar, who is set to win a supermajority in the 199-seat parliament.
BUDAPEST — The 16-year reign of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is at an end after a crushing election loss on Sunday that will send political shockwaves from Washington to Moscow.
The EU’s most autocratic leader — a close ally of both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — lost by a decisive margin in Sunday’s vote, amid the highest turnout in Hungary’s democratic history.
With almost all of the votes counted, his opponent Péter Magyar looked set to win 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament. Orbán’s Fidesz party was on track to win only 55.
Orbán conceded, with tears in his eyes, saying: “However it turned out, we will serve our country and the Hungarian nation from the opposition.”
A jubilant Magyar, theatrically clutching a Hungarian flag, stepped onto a stage on the banks of the River Danube to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as his supporters cheered and popped Champagne corks. “Together, we have liberated Hungary,” he said.
With such an emphatic margin of victory, Magyar will secure a supermajority in parliament that will allow him to change the constitution and unravel key pillars of Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” — demolishing the former prime minister’s tight control over the judiciary, state companies and the media.
Declaring that “the regime is over” and that Hungary will again be “a strong ally in the EU and NATO,” he called for a raft of top-level resignations to clean up up the state, including the presidents of the supreme court, the judicial council, the state audit office, the competition authority and the media authority.
Crucially, he also called for Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok, who has powers to veto legislation and send it back to parliament, to step down.
An enthusiastic crowd chanted “Europe, Europe,” as “We are the Champions” blasted through the streets nearby. “Hungarians said yes to Europe today, they said yes to a free Hungary,” Magyar declared from the stage by the river.
Magyar announced his first foreign trip would be to Poland, his second to Austria, and his third to Brussels “to get the funds that the Hungarians deserve” — a reference to the billions of euros of EU cash frozen because of Orbán’s democratic backsliding.
Orbán’s departure will come as a huge relief to the EU, whose systemic weaknesses he has exposed and exploited for years, most recently by helping Putin block €90 billion of European support to Ukraine. Magyar has not specifically declared whether he will remove Hungary’s veto on the cash for Ukraine, but spoke more generally on Sunday night about clarifying “outstanding issues” with European neighbors.
A gleeful European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced: “Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight.”
A heavy loss for the Hungarian premier also delivers a painful blow to Trump’s MAGA movement, which has viewed Orbán as a talismanic trailblazer for its own brand of anti-immigrant, Christian-oriented nationalism.
Trump offered several personal endorsements before the race — backed up by visits from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance — but could do nothing to swing a contest that was shaped by growing public frustration over Hungary’s ailing economy, and the corruption and cronyism associated with Orbán.
Brussels officials have long accused Orbán of undermining key institutions of Hungarian democracy — from the judiciary to the media — and of helping Putin block vital EU support to Kyiv, but the 27-nation bloc largely failed to tame his influence as its chief wrecker and disrupter.
Looking to quickly reset ties with Budapest, French President Emmanuel Macron rang Magyar to congratulate him. “France salutes a victory of democratic participation, and of the Hungarian people’s attachment to the values of the European Union, and for Hungary in Europe,” he said on X.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz invited Magyar join “forces for a strong, secure and, above all, united Europe.”
A relieved Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — who has often been obstructed by the Kremlin-aligned Orbán — congratulated Magyar and said Ukrainians were “ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary.”
It is highly significant that Magyar’s Tisza party is now heading for a two-thirds supermajority.
That would allow Tisza to deliver on the judicial reforms required to regain access to frozen EU funds and to undo years of democratic backsliding under Orbán. The party would also be able to remove Fidesz loyalists from key positions, including the president and the chief of the Constitutional Court, which could otherwise torpedo the new government’s laws.
With this two-thirds majority, the government could kill off the structures that keep 80 percent of media under Fidesz’s influence, reclaim state assets handed to Orbán-aligned foundations and think tanks, and rewrite election rules long skewed to make it difficult for any contender to remove a party from power, paving the way for a return to democratic pluralism.
