Viktor Orban concedes defeat as Hungary's Tisza Party heads for election win
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
With almost all of the ballots tallied, Tisza is projected to win 138 seats in the 199-seat legislature, Reuters reported, enough for a supermajority.
Speaking to supporters in Budapest, Orban said the result was "clear" and "painful" for his party.
"The responsibility and possibility of governing was not given to us," he said.
He added that he had congratulated the winning party and that his party, Fidesz, would serve Hungary as the opposition. Magyar said on Facebook that Orban had congratulated him.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed Tisza's landslide victory as a move by the country toward Europe.
"Europe's heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight," von der Leyen said on X. "Hungary has chosen Europe. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger."
Magyar, a moderate conservative figure who has seized on Hungarians' dissatisfaction with rising living costs, corruption and crumbling public services, described the vote as a "referendum" on Hungary's place in the world.
Casting his vote on Sunday, Magyar told reporters that the election was "a choice between East or West, propaganda or honest public discourse, corruption or clean public life."
Orban has held power in Hungary since 2010, winning four back-to-back victories as his government ratcheted up control of public institutions, the judiciary and the media. European Union lawmakers and many Western watchdogs had no longer considered the country a full democracy.
For Republicans in the U.S. and Europe's hard right, Orban is seen as a trailblazer. He has maintained close ties with Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin and has credited himself with being involved in the "program writing" for Trump's policies and strategy. Since 2022, the right-wing CPAC gathering has held a satellite event in Hungary.
Vice President JD Vance flew to Budapest ahead of election day in an attempt to reverse his ailing ally's poor poll ratings. Putin had also voiced support for Orban, who has frequently stood as the lone dissenting voice among E.U. leaders in opposing sanctions on Russia and advocating for warmer relations with Moscow.
Orban's pitch to the electorate largely centered around Russia's war in neighboring Ukraine, singling out Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for frequent attacks. In the run-up to the vote, Orban accused Ukraine of sabotaging a key oil pipeline, while Hungarian authorities seized a shipment of cash from a Ukrainian bank.
Speaking to reporters before casting his own vote on Sunday, Orban, 62, said the campaign had been "a great national moment on our side," adding: "I'm here to win."
But after a febrile campaign, with allegations of "false flag" operations, wiretapping and even an alleged sex tape plot, Magyar's projected victory brings an end to the era of Orban.
Tags
Who is online
123 visitors
JD is the kiss of death...
So, there was no tampering with the election and Orban gave a gracious concession speech. He congratulated the opposition, but he also made this vow: “We are not giving up. Never, never, never.”
I agree
So just like our 2020 election minus the concession speech.
How embarrassing is it for us - the Shining City on the Hill - to be schooled in democracy by a dinkum central European country something like Indiana or Virginia.
“I will make it clear to the President of the European Commission and to all European leaders that Hungary will take a very strict stance on immigration and will not accept any pact or allocation mechanism of this kind, and furthermore we will keep the border fence reinforced and even plug the holes that are there now, because there are holes in that border fence, probably not by accident.”
sounds like a win for Hungary
I lived in Hungary for several years under the Orbán dictatorship. The funny thing was, people could and did say whatever came into their heads, protests were held in front of the parliament, there was a gay cruise bar down the road and Orbán held elections. And yet, the country was a dictatorship. Whereas in the UK, people tend to be distinctly guarded and if they do say the wrong thing very publicly, they get locked up. And yet, it's a free country. Once you understand that words can mean whatever we want them to mean, it begins to make sense
And immediately after the election is safely over the EU announces it’s going to the Tisza party to abandon pretty much everything it campaigned on.
lol.