Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16-year reign has come to an end after the elections, and although the votes are still being counted, it is clear that the opposition party Tisza has won a landslide victory, writes the BBC.
Péter Magyar, 45, told a crowd of jubilant supporters on the banks of the Danube in time that it was done: “Together we overthrew the Hungarian regime.” The preliminary results, based on 98% of the votes, gave his party Tisza 138 seats in the parliament, while Orbán’s Fidesz won 55 seats and the far-right Our Homeland – six.
Magyar founded his party only two years ago, and during that time he visited villages and towns, rallying Hungarians fed up with the corruption and cronyism that had taken over the corridors of power. He said on Sunday night, after it became known that a total of 79.5% of eligible Hungarians had voted, that never before in the history of democratic Hungary have so many people gone to the polls, and never before has one party received such strong support. Orbán’s stay in power was based on multiple electoral victories and regular majorities, but now it is over.
While Magyar’s supporters were waiting for the results, he published a post on Facebook in which he said that Orbán had just called him and congratulated him on his victory. At that moment, it was still difficult to comprehend what had happened, and only 30% of the votes had been counted. Moments later, Orbán also went to address the supporters of his party and said that the result was clear and painful. Speaking to the roughly 2.5 million Hungarians who voted for Fidesz, Orbán said that now is the time for recovery.
Magyar has promised to abandon the changes introduced by Orbán in the education and health care systems,
fight corruption, restore the independence of the judiciary and conclude the much-hated protection system NER, which has allowed party loyalists to fill their pockets and waste state resources. To make the changes, Magyar would have needed a two-thirds majority, so 133 seats in the parliament, and the latest results show that the party won even more – 138 seats.
Magyar used to be in Orbán’s party, but now he himself has overthrown the Fidesz regime. Lawyer Agnes told the BBC that Magar is a person about whom no one can be completely sure, but the country has reached a point that makes it want something better, and that is exactly what the leader of Tisza has promised. She hopes that the promises will really come true.
Another target of Magyar is the state media supporting Orban. The television channel M1 TV has so far almost slavishly followed the positions of Fidesz, as have several once independent online media that have been bought over time by Orbán’s allies.
Before the elections, Hungary looked like two radically different worlds. In one, Orbán assured supporters and television viewers that the party was headed for victory and another four years at the head of the country, and pollsters loyal to the former prime minister also supported this, and until Sunday evening predicted Orbán’s victory. On the other side was Magyar, who drew crowds everywhere and was predicted to win by respected pollsters. On Sunday night, it turned out that only one of those worlds was real.
If the majority of Tisza is approved, changes await the public media as well.
Magyar compared the victory with the Hungarian revolution of 1848 and the uprising against the Soviet rule in 1956.
Orbán also once opposed the Soviet occupation, but over time became a close ally of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and his use of cheap Russian oil and gas despite the war in Ukraine made him a very unpopular politician in the European Union. The bloc has been trying to get Budapest to give up the energy resources of the aggressor country for a long time. Orbán also used his veto power to prevent the granting of a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine.
Hungary’s next prime minister has promised to build better relations with the EU, and the supportive crowd chanted “Russians, go home!” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was one of the first greeters, also added this phrase to his greeting.
Magyar has indicated that his first foreign visit as prime minister will be to Poland. He also promised to go to Brussels, where he plans to convince the European Commission to release EU funds worth 17 billion. They were meant for Hungary, but were frozen amid concerns about Budapest’s failure to fight corruption and threats to the independence of the judiciary.
At the moment, Orbán has not resigned from the position of head of Fidesz, and it is also difficult to predict what could happen to the party without his leadership.
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