Hungary’s opposition leader Péter Magyar of the Tisza Party has defeated long-time Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the country’s parliamentary election by a massive margin, officials said.
Magyar wrote on X: “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán just called to congratulate us on our victory.”
With more than 97.35 per cent of votes counted, Magyar’s centre-right party secured 138 out of 199 seats in parliament with 53.6 per cent of the vote share.
While the nationalist Orbán’s Fidesz won just 55 seats with 37.8 per cent, according to official results announced by the country’s election commission.
After his victory, tens of thousands of Magyars' supporters poured onto the streets along the Danube River in the capital, Budapest. Magyar said his voters had rewritten history.
“Tonight, truth prevailed over lies,” he said. “Today, we won because Hungarians didn’t ask what their homeland could do for them; they asked what they could do for their homeland. You found the answer. And you followed through.”
Magyar pledged to respect the nearly two-thirds majority and vowed to unite all Hungarians. “In the history of democratic Hungary, this many people have never voted before, and no single party has ever received such a strong mandate as Tisza.”
Meanwhile, taking the defeat gracefully, Orbán told his supporters that he had already “congratulated the victorious party” after a “painful” but “clear” result.
He said, “While the responsibility to govern Hungary was not given to us, we are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well.”
Orbán is a staunch opponent of the Russia-Ukraine war, a stance that many EU nations sought to bypass during proposals to include Ukraine in NATO, which were categorically rejected by the former Hungarian PM.
One of the possible reasons for his defeat, as touted by experts, was his growing rift with NATO and EU leadership.
Also read: Thousands rally at mega concert to oust Hungarian PM
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