Hungarians voted overwhelmingly on Sunday 12 April to bring Viktor Orbán’s regime to an end.
After sixteen years at the helm of the country, the conservative Prime Minister has suffered a defeat that marks a historic turning point for Hungary and for the political balance in Central Europe. The Tisza Party, the main opposition force, won nearly 53% of the vote, whilst Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party fell below the 40%mark.
The far-right Mi Hazánk party entered parliament with 5% of the vote.
In terms of seats, Péter Magyar holds 138 of the 199 seats in parliament, a sufficient number to amend the Constitution. This represents a landslide victory following Viktor Orbán’s sixteen years in power, and comes as a relief to both European leaders and Ukraine.
A clear rejection of the shift towards illiberalism
With a record turnout of 80 per cent, the polls have spoken: Viktor Orbán is stepping down after years of authoritarian excesses, corruption and cronyism, according to his critics.
His government, increasingly isolated on the European stage, had stepped up diplomatic provocations and entered into controversial alliances with Russia and the United States.
Under Orbán, Hungary had drifted away from the values of the European Union: restrictions on independent media, repeated attacks on NGOs and a rollback of minority rights. The ban on the LGBTQIA+ Pride March in 2025 had crystallised this rejection among a growing section of the population.
On 12 April, Hungarian voters turned their backs on a government that had run its course and gave a new voice to an opposition united around a programme of democratic renewal.
Péter Magyar, the new face of the Hungarian right
The winner of this election, Péter Magyar a former close associate of Orbán before breaking with Fidesz, now leads the Tisza party.
Whilst he still positions himself on the right, Magyar promises a more moderate approach to governance: reopening dialogue with Brussels, developing public services and tackling cronyism. For many analysts, his rise to power could mark the beginning of a rebalancing of the Hungarian political landscape.
An economy in need of rebuilding
The task looks set to be a complex one. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Hungary has experienced one of the most severe price shocks in the European Union, further exacerbating the impoverishment of households under Viktor Orbán. After a relatively contained 2020, with annual inflation at around 3-4%, the surge in prices really took hold from 2021 onwards, driven by the post-Covid recovery and the energy crisis.
In 2022, average inflation was already exceeding 15%, before skyrocketing in 2023, when Hungary became Europe’s most expensive country to live in, with inflation exceeding 20% for the year and peaking at around 25-26% at the start of the year. Although price rises subsequently eased, falling to around 3-4% in 2024 and then to close to 1-2% in early 2026, they now apply to a permanently higher price level, which has decimated household budgets in just a few years.
At the same time, wages have not kept pace with this double-digit inflation, and Hungary remains at the bottom of the European rankings for standard of living. The Hungarian National Bank notes that per capita consumption is among the lowest in the EU, just ahead of Bulgaria, whilst national and European statisticians are seeing a rise in the proportion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, following a brief respite in the early 2020s.
S The recent revision of social data has, moreover, brought to light tens of thousands of people living in poverty who were ‘invisible’ in the official figures, confirming that the extent of poverty had been underestimated. As this inflationary cycle draws to a close, Orbán’s promise of social mobility is coming up against a harsh reality: Hungarians are tightening their belts more and more in a country where the cost of living has rarely been so high.
The economic crisis in Hungary is also the result of the standoff with Brussels. Under the rule of law mechanism, the European Union is keeping nearly €18 billion in EU funds earmarked for Hungary frozen (a mix of cohesion funds and money from the post-Covid recovery plan). These funds remain blocked due to a lack of sufficient reforms regarding the fight against corruption, the independence of the judiciary and respect for fundamental freedoms.
If Péter Magyar’s new government implements genuine reforms regarding the rule of law, Budapest could quickly recoup some of those billions, providing a financial lifeline and new scope for funding public services, investment and social policies.
A new chapter for Hungary and Europe
This change of direction could profoundly alter the balance of power within the European Union.
After years of tension with Brussels, Péter Magyar’s victory paves the way for political and economic rapprochement. A new era is dawning for Hungary and, perhaps, for Europe as a whole.
Orbán’s defeat comes as a relief to Brussels, but also to Kyiv. For months, the Hungarian Prime Minister had repeatedly blocked European financial aid to Ukraine and held up the adoption of new sanctions packages against Russia, at the risk of paralysing the Union. His departure could lift some of these blockages and give the EU-27 some breathing space.However, the shift will not be complete: Péter Magyar and his Tisza party are proving more pragmatic than their predecessor, but remain opposed to Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU and to the supply of arms, whilst promising to put an end to Budapest’s constant blackmailing of the European Council.
A sign of immense relief for a large section of the population: at one o’clock in the morning, even though the results had been in for over six hours, thousands of people were still out on the streets of Budapest.
The most striking image was that of these young people, who have known nothing but fear under Viktor Orbán, a leader who has attacked the press, the judiciary, minorities and Europe. Tears and smiles mingled among these young people, who looked more towards Europe than towards Russia.
With such enthusiasm, the new Prime Minister, Péter Magyar, will have to act quickly to ensure that this joyful frenzy, which has swept the whole of Hungary, does not die down.
Sources
Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) – Prices / Inflation data: https://www.ksh.hu/prices
World Bank – “Inflation, consumer prices (annual %) – Hungary”: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?locations=HU
