Hungary’s Magyar is set to be sworn in as leader
The incoming Hungarian prime minister, Peter Magyar, came to the parliament building to take the oath of office, ending Viktor Orban’s 16-year autocratic rule.
Magyar’s center-right Tisza party defeated Orban’s nationalist-populist Fidesz in a surprising coup in April, winning more votes and seats in parliament than any other party in Hungary’s post-communist history.
The win, which gives Tisza a two-thirds majority in parliament, would allow him to roll back many of the policies that have earned Orban a reputation as a far-right authoritarian among many of his critics, contain corruption allegations and transform the political dynamics within the European Union, where the former prime minister has roiled the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions.
Magyar entered the sprawling neo-Gothic parliament building with 140 party representatives on Saturday and controls 141 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament.
Orban’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition will drop from 135 seats to 52, while the far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) party will have six seats.
199 representatives took their oaths of office late in the morning.
It was the first time Orban was not among Hungary’s first post-communist parliament since it was established in 1990.
There are 54 female deputies in the new national assembly, most of them from the Tisza party; This number is more than a quarter of the total and the highest number in Hungarian history.
Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years in Orban’s party, has vowed to end official corruption that he claims deprives Hungarians of economic opportunities.
The new prime minister has called on Hungarians to attend all-day “regime change” celebrations outside parliament to mark his inauguration and the end of the Orban era.
Several thousand people had already gathered as the new representatives were sworn in.
After taking the oath in the afternoon, the Magyar prepares to address the crowd outside.
Magyar has vowed to repair his country’s ties with the EU, which Orban has brought to breaking point, and to restore Hungary’s place among Western democracies, whose position has been questioned as Orban draws closer to Russia.
Unlocking around 17 billion euros ($A28 billion) of EU funds frozen for Hungary during Orban’s time in office due to rule of law and corruption concerns is among the new prime minister’s top priorities.
This money is desperately needed to revive Hungary’s economy, which has been in recession for the last four years.
As a sign of this determination, Tisza officials say they will once again fly the EU flag on the facade of the Parliament building after the Orban government removed it in 2014.
