Latest update:
Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar claims election victory via message Facebook. He writes that ruling leader Viktor Orbán has already congratulated him on the election win in a telephone conversation. “Thank you Hungary!” he writes. Orbán has also publicly acknowledged the defeat. “We will continue to serve the country from the opposition,” he said at a party meeting on Sunday evening. “We will never give up.” He calls the results “painful.”
In preliminary results, the current opposition party Tisza of Péter Magyar appears to be heading for significant gains, at the expense of the Fidesz party of incumbent leader Viktor Orbán. With about 85 percent of the votes counted, the Tisza party receives more than 53 percent of the votes, compared to almost 38 percent for the Fidesz party.
According to the Hungarian Electoral Council Tisza has 138 seats in the Hungarian parliament, which has 199 members. It would mean a large two-thirds majority for the Tisza party. Magyar needs this to be able to reverse Orbán’s constitutional changes. Orbán’s Fidesz party would get 54 seats based on the initial results.
The result would mean the end of sixteen years of leadership for 62-year-old Viktor Orbán, the longest-serving leader of the European Union. French President Macron, German Chancellor Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have already congratulated Magyar on his victory. “Hungary has chosen Europe,” writes Von der Leyen on Xin English and in Hungarian. “A country returns to the European path.”
According to Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, Magyar’s election victory “marks a new step for Hungary and the EU, with hope for the restoration of democracy, the rule of law and European cooperation,” he writes on X.
Conservative state
Since 2010, Orbán has turned Hungary into a conservative state and eroded the rule of law in the country. Under his leadership, Hungary also turned against the EU. For example, Orbán was repeatedly obstructive when it came to European support for Ukraine, because he maintains close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His opponent Péter Magyar (45) was the first serious challenger to Orbán since he came to power. Both progressive city dwellers and opposition voters from the countryside rallied behind his centre-right Tisza party. It meant that the Hungarian elections were seen as one of the most exciting and important of the year for Europe.
Also read
Unprecedentedly exciting campaign battle approaching apotheosis: four questions about the Hungarian parliamentary elections
Magyar promises to end corruption in Hungary and release billions in frozen European funds. He also promises improvements in health care and education. His Tisza party has been leading in the polls for a year. In the 2024 European elections, Tisza won 30 percent of the vote and came second behind Fidesz.
After casting his vote on Sunday, Magyar told reporters that the elections were “a choice between East or West, propaganda or honest public debate, corruption or clean public life.”
Hungarians could vote until Sunday from six in the morning to seven in the evening. The turnout was historically high: 77.8 percent of eligible voters had already cast a vote half an hour before the polling stations closed on Sunday. In the latest opinion polls by Hungarian polling agencies, Tisza already had a large majority.