Hungary’s Orbán concedes defeat in historic election, ending 16 years in power

Long-time Hungary prime minister Viktor Orban,left, conceded defeat to Peter Magyar and the Tisza party in the country's parliamentary election on Sunday. Photo by Attila Kisbenedek /Photographer: Attila Kisbenedek/

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An upstart opposition party in Hungary ousted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in a historic election that will redefine the country’s relationship with the European Union, Russia and the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump.

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Peter Magyar’s Tisza party was headed for a supermajority in parliament that will allow it to deliver on bold promises to dismantle Orbán’s self-styled illiberal system. Tisza had 69 per cent of the parliamentary mandates compared with 28 per cent for Orban’s Fidesz, according to the Election Office in Budapest on Sunday, with 67 per cent of the votes counted.

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Orbán conceded the election, telling supporters that the result was “painful” for him. He said he had congratulated Magyar on his victory. The forint extended a months-long rally against the euro following the publication of partial results.

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Magyar, a 45-year-old former ruling party insider, galvanized the country over the past two years with his message of change in the face of an increasingly authoritarian regime. As results trickled in, drivers honked their horns in celebration along the Danube river in Budapest.

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The result is a blow to Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sought to keep the European Union’s longest-serving prime minister in power. Trump repeatedly endorsed Orbán and sent Vice President JD Vance to Budapest to campaign for him just days before the vote.

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Putin had relied on the Hungarian leader to sow division in the EU, block aid to Ukraine and dilute sanctions against Moscow. His ouster is now likely to pave the way for the release of €90 billion (US$106 billion) in assistance that Kyiv badly needs to stay in the fight after more than four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

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“Hungary has chosen Europe,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. “Europe has always chosen Hungary. Together, we are stronger.”

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The result also marks a defeat for the nationalist camp in Europe, for whom Orbán had been a trailblazer and the driving force behind its Patriots party, now the third-largest inside the European Parliament.

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But it’s in Hungary — once a poster child for the transition from communism to market democracy, where Orbán is a larger-than-life political figure — where the impact of Sunday’s elections will be most keenly felt.

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Magyar tapped into growing anger over cronyism, stagnant economy and rapidly deteriorating public services to challenge and eventually break the EU’s longest-serving head of government’s stranglehold on power.

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Orbán has gone from a liberal, anti-communist student leader in the 1980s to become center-right, conservative prime minister for the first time in 1998 at the age of 34. After losing power in 2002, he returned to office in 2010 as a pro-Kremlin nationalist on a mission to eradicate liberal democracy.

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Magyar had campaigned on a pledge to not only oust the MAGA movement’s populist icon but to bring down his system. Much of his momentum now rides on fulfilling that promise — and doing it just got more manageable with Tisza appearing to have surpassed the 133-seat threshold to give it a two-thirds parliamentary majority.