Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has congratulated his challenger Peter Magyar on his election victory, Magyar said Sunday, as partial results showed his centre-right Tisza party on course for a commanding majority.
With 53.45% of votes counted, projections showed Tisza winning 136 seats in Hungary’s 199-member parliament, compared with 56 seats for Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party.
The result, if confirmed, would mark a landmark defeat for Orban after 16 years in power.
Earlier results from 29% of ballots counted had already put Tisza ahead with 132 seats, as momentum built throughout the night in favor of Magyar’s upstart party.
“We are optimistic,” Magyar told supporters at his party’s election headquarters in Budapest as early results began to come in and crowds gathered outside.
Voter turnout appeared strong, with long lines reported at polling stations in the capital. Data shortly before polls closed showed turnout at 77.8%, up from 67.8% in the previous election.
If finalized, the outcome would have significant implications for Hungary, the European Union and the war in Ukraine. It could end Hungary’s adversarial stance within the EU and potentially allow approval of a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine that Orban had blocked.
It could also pave the way for the release of EU funds to Hungary that had been frozen over concerns about democratic backsliding under Orban.
Orban, 62, has been regarded as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally within the EU and an ideological ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. During the campaign, he framed the election as a choice between “war and peace,” warning that Magyar would draw Hungary into the war in neighboring Ukraine — a claim Magyar denied.
If confirmed, the scale of Tisza’s projected victory could give the party a parliamentary supermajority, allowing it to pursue sweeping reforms aimed at combating corruption and restoring the independence of the judiciary and other institutions.
Orban built what he described as an “illiberal democracy,” a model admired by some right-wing movements in Europe and the United States. But his support has eroded amid economic stagnation, rising living costs and criticism over the growing wealth of allies close to his government.
Magyar’s campaign appeared to tap into that frustration.
“We need an improvement in public mood,” said Mihaly Bacsi, a 27-year-old voter in Budapest who supported Tisza. “There is too much tension in many areas and the current government only fuels these sentiments.”
Another voter, who gave her name as Zsuzsa, said she wanted continuity.
“I would really like if all the results that have been achieved in recent years remain — and I am terribly afraid of the war,” she said.
Final results were still pending, but Orban’s reported concession and the early projections signaled a dramatic political shift in Hungary.