Victor Orban’s Party, the Fidesz-KDNP, has lost the parliamentary election just ended. The people of Hungary voted decisively for the Tisza Party, which has been in the opposition.
Hungary transitioned to a democracy in 1990, and the April 12th election was the 10th. Orban has been Prime Minister for 16 consecutive years, and it took a massive voter turnout of 78% to remove him from power.
Orban has had the Support of Putin and Trump.
The former Hungarian Prime Minister had the support of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last month, Putin released two prisoners of war (POW) to the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, following a phone conversation between Putin and Orban.
The release of those POWs, who held dual citizenship, Hungarian and Ukrainian, was meant to boost Orban’s rating among Hungarians. However, the effort was not enough to secure a win for Orban. Instead, he lost, and Hungarians went to the street chanting, “Russia go home!”
As for Trump, he blatantly showed support for the incumbent, even sending his Vice President, J.D. Vance, to help him in his campaign. Orban’s supporters could be seen wearing MAGA hats during campaign rallies. MAGA is a slogan associated with Donald Trump, standing for “Make America Great Again.”
Leader of the Winning Party
The opposition leader whose party won is Peter Magyar. He heads the Tisza Party, whose name means “Respect and Freedom”.
In Hungary, members of Parliament are responsible for electing the Prime Minister. In this case, the Tisza Party won the majority of seats, 138 out of the 199 contested. Hence, it was easy for Magyar to become Prime Minister, as he had the majority of party members to choose him.
It is expected that Magyar will take his oath of office in the first week of May. Asked about Orban after the election loss, Trump refused to comment. He has not hesitated to influence the politics of a foreign country before, but this time it has failed.