What you need to know
• Concession: Veteran Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accepted defeat in a parliamentary election on Sunday, ending his 16 years in power. He congratulated Péter Magyar, leader of the center-right opposition Tisza party, and called the election result “painful” but “clear.”
• Supermajority: With nearly all of the votes counted, election officials say Magyar’s Tisza party is set to secure two-thirds of seats in parliament, with many hoping he could reverse some of the controversial changes made by Orbán.
• Global impact: Magyar’s massive victory will be a relief to leaders elsewhere in Europe, where Orbán had been a thorn in the side of the EU. It will come though as a blow for US President Donald Trump, who endorsed the nationalist, pro-Russian leader during the campaign.
• Campaign topics: Magyar campaigned on fighting corruption, but also on domestic issues, from Hungary’s stagnating economy to its poor health care. Orbán tried to win votes by stoking fear that Hungary could be dragged into the Ukraine war. Magyar told a jubilant crowd of supporters that together they “liberated Hungary” from the Orbán regime.
Our live coverage of Hungary’s parliamentary election has ended for the day. Catch up on the day’s developments:
Obama hails Hungary's election result as a "victory for democracy" worldwide
Former US President Barack Obama hailed Hungary’s parliamentary election results, celebrating Péter Magyar’s significant victory over longtime leader Viktor Orbán.
“The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world,” Obama wrote on X early Monday, shortly after the result was confirmed.
“Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law.”
Poland’s populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) lost a confidence vote after eight years in power in 2023, allowing Donald Tusk to take charge following the party’s unsuccessful attempt to secure a coalition.
It's 4 a.m. and Budapest is still partying
There are still hundreds of Tisza supporters dancing on the banks of the Danube in Budapest, cheering on the electoral defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
CNN's Melissa Bell speaks to Hungarians in Budapest after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accepted defeat in a parliamentary election on Sunday, ending his 16 years in power.
For many young Hungarians, having grown up knowing little other than life under Orbán, the night has felt slightly unreal.
“Part of me still doesn’t believe it,” Balasz, a 24-year-old law student, told CNN “Like, I have to wake up and I have to look at my phone and see that the prime minister of Hungary is not Viktor Orbán anymore.”
With nearly 99% of the votes counted in preliminary results, Hungary’s electoral authorities say Peter Mágyar’s Tisza party has won 138 seats – more than the two-thirds of seats required for a supermajority which will allow it to amend Hungary’s constitution, seen as a crucial milestone that could allow it to govern effectively.
But for those still on the streets of Budapest, the question of how Tisza might govern can wait for tomorrow. For now, most say they are relieved that change is coming.
The results are (almost) in, confirming crushing defeat for Orbán and a huge win for Magyar
As of midnight local time and with more than 98% of the vote counted, the results of the Hungarian election are clear: Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power have ended in a crushing defeat on Sunday.
Orbán’s Fidesz party looks set to secure around 55 of the parliament’s 199 seats, according to the Hungarian Election Information Office, a massive downgrade from the 135 it currently controls.
The result is stunning given the fact that Orbán has led his party to four successive election victories before Sunday, securing a supermajority in each one of them.
Instead, it will now be the Tisza party and its leader Petér Magyar – whose name literally means “Hungarian” in Hungarian – that will control the parliament.
According to the preliminary – and as of midnight still incomplete – results, Tisza is set to secure 138 seats.
European leaders are breathing a huge sigh of relief (and they're not hiding it)
Viktor Orbán’s election defeat was met with a huge sigh of relief, and a bit of schadenfreude, in Brussels, as European officials hope a new Hungarian government will bring more pro-European attitude to the table.
Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission said on social media that “Hungary has chosen Europe.”
“Europe has always chosen Hungary. Together, we are stronger. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger,” she said.
Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament congratulated Péter Magyar on the victory, saying: “Hungary’s place is at the heart of Europe.”
The comments from von der Leyen and Metsola are not surprising – Orbán has been a massive pain for the European Union for most of his 16 years in power, clashing with Brussels over an array of issues. From migration laws to the EU’s support for Ukraine, Orbán has repeatedly used procedural delays and the power of veto to derail key agreements.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has clashed with Orbán in the past, said on X that France welcomed “a victory which shows the attachment of the Hungarian people to the values of the European Union and for Hungary’s role in Europe.”
The German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz congratulated Magyar and said: “Let’s join forces for a strong, secure and, above all, united Europe.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Magyar’s win a “historic moment, not only for Hungary, but for European democracy.”
Kristen Michal, Estonian Prime Minister, said “Hungarians have made a historic choice for a free and strong Hungary in a united Europe, rejecting forces that ignore their interests.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, said the election “marks a new chapter in the history of Hungary.”
Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin congratulated Magyar on his victory and commended “the Hungarian people who turned out in such high numbers to exercise their democratic choice in today’s elections.” Martin added that he hopes to strengthen Irish-Hungarian relations based on their shared EU membership and values.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “Hungary. Poland. Europe. Back together!” Magyar told a crowd of supporters tonight that Poland will be his first trip out of the country as prime minister.
Orbán's defeat marks the end of his "illiberal democracy" rule
A record number of Hungarians came out to vote on Sunday, sending a clear signal that the time was up for the country’s long-time populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Orbán’s 16-year rule marked a shift away from the Western liberal values that shaped Hungary during its first two decades after the end of Communist rule.
Instead, Orbán pushed for what he framed as a quest for a stronger Hungary governed by nationalist and conservative values. He drove through changes that were widely seen as eroding the democratic rule of law.
Orbán’s successive governments passed judicial reforms that weakened the independence of Hungarian courts and undermined the powers of the country’s anti-corruption bodies. He also presided over the erosion of press and academic freedoms and backtracking on the rights of minorities.
Orbán has been often described as one of the original proponents of the “illiberal democracy” – a term initially used as a pejorative, but which the Hungarian leader fully embraced.
He spent the past decade and a half stoking fears and campaigning against those he described as the enemies of Hungary: liberals, free press, universities, migrants, minorities, including LGBTQ+ people and, most recently, the European Union and Ukraine.
That strategy worked for 16 years – until Sunday.
“The best night of our lives,” say Tisza supporters
It’s a party here in Budapest.
Thousands of people on the banks of the Danube have just heard from their new prime minister, Péter Magyar. They are singing Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”
“This is the best night of our lives,” said Gabor, a 31-year-old software developer. “I can’t believe that it’s real – but it’s real. Péter Magyar just told us that we won. And we won!”
His friend, Arnold, 29, said the polls had given him the feeling that Tisza would win, but 16 years of Fidesz government made it hard to imagine an alternative. He said he was happy to shut the door on an “awful” period.
Magyar promises closer relations with the European Union in victory speech
Péter Magyar promised the crowd in Budapest tonight that he’ll steer Hungary back towards the European Union after years of tension between the EU and the outgoing Orbán government.
“Hungarians said ‘yes’ to Europe,” Magyar declared, saying that his new government will reintegrate Hungary into the European Union’s judicial system.
“Hungary is again going to be a very strong ally of the European Union and NATO,” Magyar said.
The Tisza leader told supporters that he plans on traveling first to Poland as prime minister, then to Vienna, and finally to Brussels, where the European Parliament convenes.
“Hungary has been in Europe for 1000 years and is going to stay there,” Magyar said.
Magyar’s supporters, some of whom waved European flags alongside the Hungarian tricolor, were ecstatic.
“We have to go back to Europe,” said András Petöcz, a 67-year-old writer and poet. “It’s very important for us and to Europe.” He said he disliked Viktor Orban’s close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It was a very bad feeling that the old prime minister, we didn’t understand why he made very close contact with Moscow, with Russia, with Putin.” Petöcz added. “I didn’t understand his politics. I didn’t like it.”
“It’s a new life for Hungary,” he said. “And for Europe also.”
Ukraine's Zelensky, vilified by Orbán, praises Magyar's massive victory
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Petér Magyar on his “resounding victory” in the Hungarian election on Sunday, saying on Telegram that it was “important when constructive approach prevails.”
Of all countries in the world, Ukraine had by far the most to gain – or lose – in the Hungarian election, given incumbent Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s long-standing opposition to European programs designed to help Ukraine as it tries to defend itself from Russian aggression.
Orbán had become a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, regularly blocking or stalling European Union’s attempts to sanction Russia and deliver aid to Ukraine.
Zelensky was portrayed as a key nemesis by Orbán during the election campaign, with the long-time Hungarian leader launching several personal attacks against him. Posters across Hungary have depicted Zelensky as a “dangerous criminal” who wants Hungary to become “Ukraine’s colony.”
Zelensky said that “Ukraine has always sought good-neighborly relations with everyone in Europe and we are ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary.”
Magyar tells jubilant crowd they have "liberated Hungary" from the Orbán regime
The man who is now almost certainly set to become Hungary’s next Prime Minister told his supporters at a victory rally on Sunday night that “together we replaced the Orbán regime, together we liberated Hungary. We took our country back.”
Addressing large crowds of people in Budapest, Magyar, the leader of the Tisza party, said the victory was so large, it was “visible from the moon and every window in Hungary.”
“Never in the history of democratic Hungary, have so many people voted, and no other party has ever received such a big mandate,” Magyar said, adding that his party will secure a supermajority of more than two thirds of the seats in the parliament.
Maguyr thanked his voters – of whom he said there were 3.3 million, the highest number any Hungarian party has ever received.
Italy's Meloni, a key Orbán ally in Europe, congratulates Magyar
Victor Orbán had several powerful backers among likeminded world leaders, including the US President Donald Trump.
Now that he has lost the election his backers will need to find a way to work with his replacement Péter Magyar.
The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was among Orbán’s loudest cheerleaders in Europe, posted a statement on X congratulating Magyar on “the clear election victory.”
“I thank my friend Viktor Orbán for the intense collaboration over the years. I know that even from the opposition he will continue to serve his nation,” she said.
“Italy and Hungary are nations bound by a deep bond of friendship and I am certain that we will continue to work together in a constructive spirit in the interest of our peoples and the common challenges.”
Magyar starts victory parade in Budapest
Péter Magyar, Hungary’s incoming prime minister, is greeting thousands of his supporters outside Tisza’s election headquarters in the heart of Hungary’s capital city Budapest.
He is waving a Hungarian flag, as speakers blast out Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ to a jubilant - and growing - crowd of supporters.
Magyar's Tisza party is heading for a supermajority in the parliament
With nearly 90% of the vote counted, according to the Hungarian Election Information Center, Peter Magyar Tisza party is set to secure a supermajority in the Hungarian parliament.
Tisza will likely control more than two thirds of the 199 seats in Hungary’s parliament, which will give it the power to amend Hungary’s constitution.
Many in Hungary and in Europe are hoping the new government will reverse some of the changes made by Victor Orbán.
Orbán used his supermajority to consolidate power, weaken the independence of the country’s courts, change the election system and restrict the rights of some minorities.
Orbán's defeat marks loss for Trump, who boosted leader during campaign
Viktor Orbán’s defeat is also a loss for US President Donald Trump and his team, who went to extraordinary lengths to support the nationalist leader in the final stretch of campaigning.
After Vice President JD Vance’s overt attempt to boost Orbán during a trip to Budapest last week, Trump dangled economic support for Hungary’s struggling economy if Orbán ever asked for it.
Trump’s promise of economic support seemed at odds with statements Vance made during his stop in Budapest. Attempting to rebut claims his visit amounted to the kind of foreign election interference he and Orbán claimed was being waged against the Hungarian leader by the European Union and Ukraine, Vance said the US wasn’t using “economic influence” to sway the vote.
“Foreign influence is when other governments threaten, cajole and try to use economic influence to tell you how to vote,” Vance said, denying that was his goal in Budapest.
“We have never threatened Hungary saying, ‘If you don’t vote for Viktor Orbán, you’re not going to get this and this.’ We would never do that, because we respect the Hungarian people enough to respect their sovereignty,” Vance said.
At an earlier news conference, Vance said “of course” the Trump administration would work with whoever won the Hungarian election.
“But Viktor Orbán is going to win the next election in Hungary,” he insisted.
The White House has not yet responded to Sunday’s election results.
A closer look at incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar
Incoming Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar was growing up during Hungary’s democratic transition, he had a poster of Viktor Orbán – then a liberal anti-communist – pinned to his bedroom wall. Today, the 45-year-old leader of the Tisza party brought Orbán’s 16-year stint as Hungary’s prime minister to an abrupt end.
Just two years ago, Magyar was a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party, before he split from the party in a high-profile rupture.
Earlier that year, Orbán’s government was rocked by public furor after it emerged Hungary’s then president, Katalin Novák, had pardoned a former official convicted of helping to cover up the abuse of underaged boys at a children’s home. Judit Varga, Orbán’s justice minister at the time, was also involved in the pardon. Both women resigned.
Varga had previously been married to Magyar. In an explosive interview with Partizan, a Hungarian media outlet, Magyar accused Orbán of “hiding behind women’s skirts.” He also used the interview to share secrets he had gleaned from his proximity to government. “A few families own half the country,” he said.
Anti-corruption has been a major theme of Magyar’s campaign. He has described the image Orbán projects to the world – of the prime minister as the defender of national sovereignty against liberal ideology – as “sugar-coating” to “conceal the workings of the machinery of power and to acquire immense fortunes.”
The campaign also focused relentlessly on domestic, kitchen-table issues, from Hungary’s stagnating economy to its poor healthcare. While Orbán has campaigned mostly on issues of foreign policy, Magyar has said next to nothing about his stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine or Hungary’s relationship with the European Union.
Huge cheers at Tisza party headquarters after Orbán concedes defeat
All week, the Tisza supporters I have spoken to at rallies across Hungary have refused to allow themselves to consider what victory might feel like. Now, they know.
People are celebrating outside the Tisza party headquarters, on the banks of the Danube. There is champagne, hugs and tears.
András Petöcz, a writer and poet, said the feeling reminded him of being in Budapest in 1989 “when the Communist regime collapsed. It’s the same thing,” he told CNN.
“I was 30 years old when the Communist regime ended. It’s the same feeling – the same,” he said.
How big a win will it be for Péter Magyar?
With Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceding the election to opposition leader Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, the focus of Hungarian news media is trying to gauge the size of the party’s future majority.
The broadly pro-government Magyar Hírlap says Tisza could win as much as two thirds of the seats in the parliament, which would give the party a crucial constitutional majority.
Blikk, Hungary’s most popular tabloid newspaper which was acquired by pro-Orbán media group Indamedia last year, is also predicting Tisza to win, although its coverage is focusing mostly on the part of the vote counting that has been going well for Fidesz so far.
Hu.24, one of Hungary’s most widely read news website, is projecting Tisza to cross the magic two-thirds line, while the left-leaning Népszava says Tisza is leading by a “huge margin.”
Orbán concedes election defeat after 16 years in power
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has conceded defeat in Hungary’s parliamentary election, ending his 16 years in power.
In a speech at his Fidesz party headquarters, Orbán said the defeat is painful, but that the result was clear. He said he had congratulated the opposition Tisza party on its victory.
Orbán was greeted by huge applause from supporters before conceding
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was welcomed to the stage at his Fidesz party election headquarters with massive applause before he conceded defeat, with supporters chanting his name and clapping as he and his entourage filed in.
Orbán acknowledged the election defeat was painful – but vowed to keep fighting, a promise that was welcomed with more cheers and applause.
For Tisza, 133 seats is the magic number
Tisza will be hoping for no fewer than 133 – two thirds – of the 199 seats in Hungary’s parliament.
Winning two-thirds of seats, a supermajority, would give Tisza the power to amend Hungary’s constitution.
It’s a power that Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, which has won four consecutive supermajorities, has made extensive use of.
After Orbán returned to office in 2010 (he served his first term at the turn of the century), he overhauled Hungary’s constitution. In 2011, his government passed a “Fundamental Law” which curbed media freedoms and lowered the retirement age for judges, which critics said allowed Fidesz to weed out judges it did not like.
If Tisza fails to win a supermajority, analysts say it would face huge constraints in its ability to govern effectively.
