The near-complete count of Hungary's legislative elections this Sunday confirmed the “super majority” of over two-thirds of the seats for the opposition Tisza party, led by conservative Péter Magyar. This thus ends the 16-year government of the ultranationalist Viktor Orbán.
With 96.9% of the votes counted, Tisza secured 138 of the 199 seats in the Chamber, while the previously governing Fidesz party obtained 55 parliamentarians, compared to six for the far-right Our Homeland party.
Thanks to this parliamentary majority, the Magyar government will be able to reverse the “illiberal” system introduced by Orbán, who amended the Constitution, reformed electoral law several times to his advantage, and limited numerous civil rights in the country.
In his first speech after his landslide victory was confirmed, Magyar promised that the Central European country will be under his government “a strong ally of the European Union and NATO”.
“The place of our homeland was, is, and will be in the EU,” he said to tens of thousands of his followers gathered on the banks of the Danube, opposite the Hungarian Parliament.
“We will resolve all our disputes with neighboring countries,” Magyar added, without explicitly naming Ukraine, with whom Orbán had been at odds in recent months over the suspension of Russian oil transit to Hungary.
For this reason, the ultranationalist prime minister had vetoed a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, invaded by Russia since 2022, right in the middle of the electoral campaign.
Furthermore, Magyar said he spoke this same night with several EU leaders, such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, as well as with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
He also announced that his first foreign trips as the new head of government will take him to Warsaw, Vienna, and Brussels.
