Hungary for change: Orbán’s Sixteen-Year Grip Destroyed in Landslide Defeat

By Molly Lukas

On Sunday, April 12th, Hungarian voters delivered victory to Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party. In doing so, they brought an end to Viktor Orbán’s sixteen‑year Fidesz dominance, long seen by many as distorting the shape of Hungarian democracy. With nearly all votes counted, Tisza had secured 137 parliamentary seats to Fidesz’s 56, a two-thirds supermajority that hands Magyar’s party constitutional authority. 

To understand the weight of this result, some context is necessary. Hungary holds parliamentary elections every four years, and its 199-seat National Assembly is filled through a hybrid system. Some seats go to winners of local districts, while the remainder are allocated proportionally among parties based on national vote share. The two-thirds majority allows the governing party to amend electoral law and parts of the constitution, powers that Orbán used to entrench his position after first winning a majority in 2010.

Orbán, 62, had served one earlier term as prime minister from 1998 to 2002. In a now-infamous 2014 speech, he declared his intention to build an “illiberal state, a non-liberal state,” citing Russia and Turkey as explanatory models. His governments pursued aggressive restrictions on immigration, rolled back LGBTQ+ protections, placed Orbán loyalists throughout the judiciary, and weakened independent media. Critics (and eventually much of the EU)  accused him of eroding the democratic foundations of a member state. Orbán became known as adversarial toward Brussels and unusually warm toward Moscow. He consistently opposed European military and financial support for Ukraine, maintaining close ties with Vladimir Putin even as the rest of the bloc rallied behind Kyiv. 

On the eve of the election, April 12th, President Trump pledged to deploy America’s full economic influence to bolster Hungary’s economy should Fidesz retain power. Vice President JD Vance travelled to Budapest to campaign in person, telling a rally crowd that he and Trump wished Orbán success and were, in his words, “fighting right here with you.”

Péter Magyar, the man who defeated him, was a member of Fidesz before departing two years ago, citing “systemic corruption” within the party. He revived the Tisza Party, positioned as center-right but firmly pro-European, rejecting Russian influence.  His victory speech on Sunday carried the register of liberation: “We have liberated Hungary and have taken back our country.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered her congratulations, writing that Hungary had “chosen Europe” and that Europe had “always chosen Hungary.” The Trump White House and Vice President Vance have not commented at the time of writing.

SOURCE: Orbán loses in Hungary.

IMAGE SOURCE: Open democracy