Hungary’s new leader Peter Magyar calls for sweeping change after ousting long-term PM Viktor Orban

BUDAPEST – Mr Peter Magyar, Hungary’s next prime minister, outlined sweeping changes after ending Mr Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule in a landslide election victory that will redefine the country’s ties with the European Union, Russia and the US administration of President Donald Trump.

Mr Magyar, a 45-year-old former ruling party insider, said the overwhelming victory for his Tisza party – on track for a two-thirds parliamentary majority – gave him a mandate to dismantle Mr Orban’s increasingly authoritarian system and bring Hungary back into the European fold.

He called on the country’s president, top justices and chief prosecutor to all hand in their resignations during his victory speech in front of a cheering crowd in Budapest on April 12.

Mr Magyar said they had put their political allegiance to Mr Orban’s authoritarian system above their office’s responsibilities.

“Those who betrayed the country must take responsibility,” he said with the Danube river and a lit-up parliament building behind him.

Mr Magyar said he would “liberate Hungary and take back our country”.

The result is a blow to Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sought to keep the EU’s longest serving prime minister in power.

The outcome also marked a defeat for the nationalist camp in Europe for whom Mr Orban had been a trailblazer and the driving force behind its Patriots party, now the third-largest inside the European Parliament.

It came as a big relief for the EU, which had struggled to overcome Mr Orban’s obstructionism over the years.

Mr Putin had relied on the Hungarian leader to sow division in the bloc, crucial aid to Ukraine and dilute sanctions against Moscow. The forint strengthened to a three-year high against the euro.

“Hungary will once again be a strong ally in the European Union and in NATO,” Mr Magyar said. “Hungary’s place is, will be and has been in Europe for a thousand years.”

Mr Orban’s ouster is now likely to pave the way for the release of €90 billion (S$153 billion) in assistance that Kyiv badly needs to stay in the fight after more than four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“Hungary has chosen Europe,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X. “Europe has always chosen Hungary. Together, we are stronger.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that he was ready for “meetings and joint constructive work for the benefit of both nations, as well as peace, security, and stability in Europe”.

Poster child

But it’s in Hungary – once a poster child for the transition from communism to market democracy, where Mr Orban is a larger than life political figure – where the impact of April 12’s elections will be most keenly felt.

Mr Orban has gone from a liberal, anti-communist student leader in the 1980s to become center-right, conservative prime minister for the first time in 1998 at the age of 34.

After losing power in 2002, he returned to office in 2010 as a pro-Kremlin nationalist on a mission to eradicate liberal democracy.

Mr Magyar had galvanized the country over the past two years with his message of change in the face of Mr Orban’s system.

He also tapped into growing anger over cronyism, stagnant economy and rapidly deteriorating public services to challenge and eventually break the EU’s longest-serving head of government’s stranglehold on power. 

Much of his momentum now rides on fulfilling that promise – and doing it just got more manageable with Tisza appearing to have surpassed the 133-seat threshold to give it a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Mr Magyar said Tisza’s parliamentary dominance would make the planned changes “much more peaceful and smooth”.

But he’s also inheriting some of the economic challenges that contributed to Mr Orban’s undoing and were only made worse by the the prime minister’s pre-election spending spree, which included lifetime income tax exemptions for mothers and increases in pensions and wages.

The government ran up a cash-flow based deficit of 3.4 trillion forint (S$13.5 billion) in the first quarter, a year-to-date record.

Mr Magyar will have to take urgent steps to trim the budget to avert Hungary’s sovereign credit rating being cut to junk.

A two-thirds majority will also help a Magyar administration pass key legislation to unlock some of the more than US$20 billion in EU funds that had been withheld from the Mr Orban government on rule-of-law and corruption concerns – and which a cash-strapped budget badly needs.

They include approving anti-graft laws, cooperation with the EU chief prosecutor’s office and restoring media and academic freedoms.

Mr Magyar has vowed to introduce a two term limit for prime ministers to prevent Hungary from reverting to authoritarian rule.

He’s said that would disqualify Mr Orban, who has served four consecutive and five overall terms, from running in the future for the top government job.

Forint rally

The prospect of easing tensions with the EU – and the potential for a Magyar administration to eventually embrace the adoption of the euro, something Mr Orban has adamantly opposed – had fuelled a currency and bond rally in Hungary months ahead of vote. 

Mr Orban himself had relied on a so-called supermajority since 2010 to pass a new constitution and election rules without opposition support and extend his influence over all walks of life, from court benches to boardrooms to classrooms. 

In the process, the prime minister had castigated minorities, notably the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants, targeted journalists and independent civil society in what were widely seen as tactics out of the Kremlin’s playbook.

Mr Magyar, who describes himself as a center-right conservative, united liberals and disaffected Fidesz voters like himself under the Tisza umbrella. 

He also did what other former opposition parties had failed to do: win over the countryside through relentless campaigning that took him to the smallest of villages, once Fidesz’s stronghold where Tisza made big gains on April 12.

Mr Magyar had focused on addressing the economic concerns of Hungarians, including a cost-of-living, education and health-care crisis.

He’s also vowed to hold senior officials accountable for what’s been seen as the capture of state assets and which led to the creation of a new class of politically connect super-rich, including Mr Orban’s family and friends.

Hungary has plunged to last place in the EU in graft watchdog Transparency International’s corruption rankings.

For the EU, the looming change in Hungary couldn’t come sooner.

Mr Orban had cast MR Magyar as the bloc’s puppet and had opposed aid for Ukraine, which he vetoed last month.

He’s also called Ukraine the enemy, mirroring the strategy of Russia, which had invaded Hungary’s neighbor in 2022.

Mr Magyar has pledged to improve relations with the EU and key members such as Germany and Poland, while loosening ties with Russia, including by reviewing the Mr Orban government’s controversial expansion of the Paks nuclear plant in a project led by Russia’s Rosatom Corp. 

At the same time, Mr Magyar has given a drawn-out timeline, extending into the next decade, for weaning the country off Russian oil and gas, despite an EU plan to cut energy dependence on Moscow soon. BLOOMBERG