by James Crisp and Milla Cartwright
Péter Magyar will become Hungary’s first new prime minister in 16 years in a landslide victory over Viktor Orbán.
Mr Magyar’s Tisza party is on track to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament, putting it in position to reverse Mr Orbán’s changes to the country’s constitution.
The defeat of Mr Orbán, a close ally of both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, was celebrated around the bloc.
His detractors in Brussels hope his defeat will be an opportunity to refresh relations between Budapest with both the EU and the Nato military alliance.
In his victory speech late on Sunday after a record election turnout, Mr Magyar, 45, declared that Mr Orbán’s regime was over and said he was ready to transform Hungary into “a strong ally in the EU and Nato”.
“Together we have freed Hungary,” Mr Magyar told a delirious crowd of supporters on the banks of the Danube. “My friends you have worked a miracle. Hungary has written history.”
It is not known if the Tisza chief will reverse Mr Orbán’s long-standing veto on a planned €90bn (£78bn) loan from the EU to Ukraine.
While stopping short of committing to a decision on the loan, Mr Maygar said he wanted to “clarify all outstanding issues with our neighbours”.
Both Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, and Antonio Costa, the Council’s president, held talks on Sunday with the new Hungarian leader.
Mrs von der Leyen declared: “Hungary has chosen Europe. A country reclaims its European path. The union grows stronger.”
Mr Costa said he looked forward to working with Mr Maygar “to make Europe stronger and more prosperous”.
Officials close to Mr Costa said they would send Mr Orbán, 62, a gift – a photograph signed by the Council chief – to mark his time as an EU leader.
Insiders joked the memento would be hung in Moscow, a nod to Mr Orbán’s close bond with the Kremlin.
Mr Magyar’s Tisza party looked set to win 138 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament. Mr Orbán’s Fidesz party was expected to win just 55 of those seats.
Turnout in the election reached a record 79.56 per cent, according to the near-complete vote count.
Despite having a supermajority, Mr Magyar could still be impeded in forming a government by Tamás Sulyok, Hungary’s president, who was endorsed by Mr Orbán’s party during his 2024 election campaign.
Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Mr Magyar, writing on X: “This is an historic moment, not only for Hungary, but for European democracy. I look forward to working with you for the security and prosperity of both our countries.”
Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, posted: “Trump, Putin, Farage... your boy took a hell of a beating. Congratulations to the people of Hungary for showing that populist extremists can be defeated – even despite Donald Trump’s best efforts.”
Donald Trump endorsed the Eurosceptic Mr Orbán before Sunday’s vote, urging Hungarians to give the nationalist a fifth consecutive election victory.
Instead, they turned out in record numbers to end the premiership of the EU’s longest-serving leader in a vote closely watched in Moscow, Kyiv, Brussels and Washington.
“The result is clear. I congratulated Tisza but we will never give up,” Mr Orbán said.
Mr Magyar walked through the crowds, shaking hands and holding aloft Hungary’s flag to the booming strains of My Way by Frank Sinatra and Spring is Coming, a Hungarian folk song that has become a campaign anthem.
He said: “Truth triumphed over lies. Fellow Hungarians, countrymen, we have done it. The Tisza party and Hungary have won the elections. Not by a small but by a very large margin.”
Declaring that Hungary had taken back its country, he said Budapest would now be “a strong ally of the EU and Nato”.
“Russians go home,” his supporters chanted, after an election marred by reports of Russian meddling and disinformation campaigns.
Mr Magyar, a former Orbán ally, hailed it as the largest turnout since the first elections after the fall of communism in 1990 and said he had won the largest mandate in Hungary’s democratic history.
He warned “puppets of this regime must leave public life”, calling on them to leave before they were fired, adding “this regime is over”, as he promised to restore democratic institutions.
Mr Orbán, 62, angered EU and Nato allies by vetoing the loan to Ukraine, obstructing policies helpful to Kyiv, buying Russian oil and gas and maintaining close ties with Vladimir Putin.
They were furious after it was revealed Hungary had shared details of EU meetings with Moscow. Mr Orbán also railed against EU sanctions on the Kremlin.
EU leaders congratulate Magyar
“France welcomes the victory of democratic participation, the Hungarian people’s commitment to the values of the European Union, and Hungary’s commitment to Europe,” said Emmanuel Macron after speaking with Mr Magyar on the phone.
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, also congratulated Mr Magyar.
“I look forward to the co-operation for a strong, secure, and above all united Europe,” said Mr Merz, who had accused Mr Orbán of disloyalty for vetoing the loan to Ukraine after a row over a damaged Russian oil pipeline.
More than half of the votes had been counted when Mr Orbán conceded defeat in a surprise move. Most other opposition parties had withdrawn from the race to clear the way for Mr Magyar.
Opinion polls had consistently given Tisza a lead over Mr Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, but a divisive campaign had been marred by accusations of vote-buying and electoral fraud.
“I’ve never been this happy in my life,” Bence Kis, 27, a lorry driver told The Telegraph. “We’ve been waiting for this for two years now,” said students Eszther Toth and Luca Nemeth, both 21.
Mr Magyar, whose surname means “Hungarian”, burst onto the scene two years ago after breaking with Fidesz.
He was previously married to Mr Orbán’s justice minister. Now out of politics, she has accused Mr Magyar of domestic abuse, which he has denied.
Mr Magyar wants to convince Brussels to release €17bn that was frozen because of concerns over Mr Orbán’s erosion of the rule of law. The money is much needed in a country with a struggling economy.
EU diplomats have warned that is not a foregone conclusion. One told The Telegraph that Mr Magyar would be an improvement on Mr Orbán but would not turn Hungary “into Luxembourg” overnight.
He will be more pro-EU and more anti-Russian than Mr Orbán. But in a sign that Fidesz’s relentless anti-Zelensky propaganda has had an impact, he is unlikely to immediately drop Hungarian opposition to Ukraine one day joining the EU.
*Published first on The Telegraph
By: N. Peter Kramer
