“Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we work,” Peter Magyar, 45, Hungary’s new Prime Minister (PM) shouted out to massive crowds late on Sunday night. He had just been voted in with a thumping two-thirds majority, inflicting a humiliating defeat on Viktor Orban, Europe’s longest-serving leader.
As the vote count piled up, so did the hordes of mainly young people choking the banks of the Danube around Budapest’s parliament building, a somewhat modest replica of Westminster. The chain bridge linking downtown Pest with the elegant hills of Buda reverberated with light and sound marking the victory of a young and as-yet-untried new party, the Tisza. Its leader, a personable 45-year-old apparatchik, who broke ranks with his former boss, Viktor Orban in 2024, scored the biggest-ever win in Hungary’s post-communist history, literally sweeping the table, obtaining 138 of the country’s 199 parliamentary seats.
If the mood in Hungary was jubilant and celebratory, it was no less so in Brussels, where European technocrats were heaving a collective sigh of relief, happy to see the back of the Hungarian strongman, who had been the EU’s bugbear for over a decade. They could now hope to see a roll back of some of Europe’s most restrictive laws that were seen to violate the EU’s charter of fundamental rights and Hungary could hope to reclaim the $ 17 billion of frozen EU aid languishing in bank vaults during the protracted battle of wills between Orban and Brussels. With its population of nine million people Hungary punches far above its weight. It is the leader of the so called Visegrad Group, named after the Hungarian castle where its first meeting was held in the early 90s. Made up of four former Soviet satellite states Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovak Republics, the V4 has often battled for NATO while remaining suspicious of European liberalism. Orban has stymied many an EU effort to help the Ukrainians, consistently supporting Russian positions in that conflict.
There will, therefore, be several long faces in Moscow and Washington, Rome, and Paris as well where Orban enjoyed enthusiastic support from Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Georgia Melloni and Marine Le Pen.
{{/usCountry}}There will, therefore, be several long faces in Moscow and Washington, Rome, and Paris as well where Orban enjoyed enthusiastic support from Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Georgia Melloni and Marine Le Pen.
{{/usCountry}}Viktor Orban’s pugnacious style and promises of prosperity, development and defiance of Brussels in the name of national sovereignty charmed his people for over a decade. He was decidedly pro-Christian, anti-LGBTQ and anti-diversity. He built Hungary into an anti-immigrant fortress, saying Christian civilisation had to be “preserved” from outside diluting influences. He was a big mouth who loved to provoke. His outspoken style and love of defiance endeared him to both Putin and Trump. In Orban’s view, Ukraine was not the victim of Russian aggression but the other way around. As Putin’s man in Brussels, he batted for Russia all the way, vetoing and obstructing anti-Russia sanctions whenever and wherever he could.
But in the end, Orban was removed by his own supporters. A disappointed and dispirited people found they had become not just the slowest growing economy in Europe, but that, contrary to promises, immigration, from non-white countries like Sri Lanka, Turkey or the Philippines increased, (essentially to build luxury high rises or man the factories of Orban’s friends and family) while the birth rate remained in free fall. Orban, had become a caricature of himself.
He has been replaced not by a flaming socialist, Left-wing wokeist or even a modest centrist. Peter Magyar, the absurdly young-looking former Orban adviser holds traditional rightwing views. While his message was inclusive of “every single Hungarian,” his campaign steered clear of any mention of LGBTQ rights or other divisive issues that might rile the traditional Right. While not exactly becoming liberal, Hungary would not be “illiberal” anymore, Magyar told voters.
But even if this election is historic, it can hardly be qualified as a total break with the past. In his very tough victory speech, Magyar called for the immediate resignation of the country’s media watchdog, chief prosecutor and other top officials appointed by the Orban regime. But will he proceed quickly to dismantle the super state his predecessor had created? What exactly the energetic Peter Magyar will do with the ginormous majority that he won riding a distinct anti-Orban wave remains to be seen.
(The views expressed are personal.)
This article is authored by Vaiju Naravane, senior columnist, France.