Nightmare for Putin as Orbán concedes Hungarian election after 16 years in power | World | News
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Putin and Trump, has conceded election defeat in Hungary after 16 years in power. The Hungarian Prime Minister congratulated his rival Péter Magyar, who is on track to win the Hungarian parliamentary elections. A record 77 percent of Hungarians voted in the election held on Sunday, April 12, which is considered one of the most important elections for the European Union.
Preliminary results show Magyar’s Tisza party will win 137 seats in Hungary’s 199-member parliament. It signals a clear victory for Magyar and the end of Orbán’s 16-year rule, which was internationally notorious for illiberal policies that restricted democratic rights, strengthened ties with Russia and led to frequent vetoes of EU decisions, including financial aid to Ukraine.
Although the results are not yet final, Orbán has already conceded defeat after what he called a “painful” result.
“I congratulated the victorious party,” Orbán told his supporters in Budapest. “We will serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from the opposition.” Just minutes before Orbán’s speech, Magyar also posted on Facebook, confirming that he had received congratulations from his rival.
The Hungarian electoral system is quite complex in that most voters cast two votes in separate voting systems. It will likely take days or even weeks for final results to be available.
But some leaders have already congratulated the newly elected prime minister, with Emmanuel Macron saying in X: “France salutes the victory of democratic participation, the commitment of the Hungarian people to the values of the European Union and the victory of Hungary in Europe.”
Donald Trump, who supported Orbán and hailed him as an example to the rest of Europe, still remains silent.
But the strongest congratulations came from the streets. Reporters in the field described the excitement at Tisza’s headquarters and on the banks of the Danube River in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
Writer and poet András Petöcz told CNN that the feeling reminded him of being in Budapest in 1989 “when the Communist regime collapsed.”
As of early 2026, Péter Magyar is seen as the main opposition rival of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He is currently the president of the Tisza Party (Respect and Freedom) and a member of the European Parliament, whose popularity has increased after he broke away from the inner circles of the ruling elite.
“He built an opposition movement with incredible speed,” said Gábor Győri of Policy Solutions, a Budapest-based political research institute. “Never in the history of Hungary have we seen a party rising so quickly after the transition.”
Magyar is often described as a conservative liberal, and some aspects of his political views are actually similar to his predecessor. However, the Tisza party, which brings a new atmosphere to Hungarian politics, promises a comprehensive transformation in Hungarian society focused on the fight against corruption, economic reform and adaptation to the West. He also wants to eliminate Russia’s influence on the government, increase defense spending, invest in Hungary’s military and review defense industry contracts for corruption.
According to the generally pro-government media platform Magyar Hírlap, Tisza could win two-thirds of the seats in parliament, giving the party a strong constitutional majority. What Tisza hopes for is to win at least two-thirds of the 199 seats in parliament, that is, 133 of the 199 seats in parliament. In the event of a supermajority, Magyar’s party could change the constitution and begin to dramatically change Hungary’s political landscape.
This is the same power that Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has widely used in four consecutive election cycles. If Orbán decides to use this power one last time to pass last-minute legislation that would make it harder for any government to change its past policies, Magyar could face practical obstacles to achieving these goals.
Still, this is a major victory for the centre-right party founded just two years ago and a serious blow to national populists across Europe.
