LONDON — “Europe! Europe!” echoed from the banks of the Danube as the result landed like a jolt, an election landslide that many across the continent treated as a stunning defeat for those seen as threatening Europe’s security.
Leaders, including Presidents, prime ministers and European Union officials, celebrated what they framed as the end of Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule in Hungary and pointed to a return to unity and shared values in the European Union, the 27-nation bloc that he criticized and sought to undermine. Orbán, a close ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, has also been seen as a trailblazer for the global hard right. Sunday night, he conceded defeat in what turned into a sweeping victory for challenger Peter Magyar and the center-right Tisza Party, which united much of the country’s opposition behind a vow to restore ties with Europe.
Magyar was set to win 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament, with almost all votes counted. A succession of leaders lined up to offer congratulations even before he took the stage in Budapest to address large crowds and declare victory. In one of those small, very human moments that stuck—somewhere between pageantry and relief—there was the sound of chants rolling across the river walk, the kind of noise you don’t really hear unless you’re there.
On the political stage, support came fast. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “Hungary, Poland, Europe, Back together! Glorious victory, dear friends!” He added “Ruszkik haza,” meaning “Russians go home” in Hungarian, a reference to Orban’s backing for Putin and repeated veto on European support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. In a video clip posted by Tusk, the clearly delighted Polish leader is seen speaking to Magyar by phone and says “I think I’m happier than you.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez put it more broadly: “Today Europe wins and European values win.”
The European Democratic Party, a pan-European centrist group that supports greater integration across the continent, called Magyar’s victory “a cry that shakes the conscience of us all” and shared a clip of crowds chanting “Europe! Europe!” at his rally in Budapest. Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain — no longer a member of the E.U. but a close supporter of Ukraine — said: “This is an historic moment, not only for Hungary, but for European democracy.”
Still, not everyone sounded like they were celebrating for the long haul. Misryoum newsroom reported that while Orbán’s defeat is real, the influence he and his supporters built across Hungary’s institutions won’t disappear neatly. Analysts cautioned that the structure of the last 16 years is entrenched, and that unwinding it will take time.
According to Misryoum newsroom reporting, Jonathan Eyal, associated director of the Royal United Services Institute, said the state is so deeply shaped that it could take quite some time “for anyone to unravel this.” Orbán, 62, has been criticized for dismantling or impairing democratic institutions including the constitution, law courts and the media, and for packing influential committees with loyalists. Tisza is expected to win at least two-thirds of the Hungarian parliament, a supermajority that means it can amend the Hungarian constitution. Magyar told supporters on Sunday: “We will restore the system of checks and balances,” and has vowed to unlock billions of dollars of in funding from the E.U. that had been halted due to repeated infringements and concerns about corruption and the democratic process.
But Eyal pointed to the practical obstacles: official bodies stuffed with Orbán loyalists that took power away from parliament to make policy, plus a powerful constitutional court full of his appointees. “So sweeping away all these cobwebs is not something that could happen after a party on the Danube River,” he warned. Magyar, 45, is not an outsider by nature—he was a former member of Orbán’s Fidesz Party and a former official in the Foreign Ministry, breaking away to join Tisza in 2024. Eyal said there’s a “legitimate question” about how much break this represents from views shared during Orbán’s rule. Magyar also backs the hardline stance of the previous administration on immigration and has even signaled he may go further, by scrapping the country’s guest worker scheme for non-E.U. citizens.
For Misryoum analysis, Eyal added that whatever happens next, the result is “a blow to the regime in Moscow,” with most voters, he said, saying they don’t want to be part of Russia and want to be part of Europe. And that, he argued, is a major lesson for the far right—though how quickly the institutions and loyalties shift is… not something anyone can quite promise after one election.
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