Viktor Orbán concedes defeat as opposition wins election in Hungary
Hungary’s opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, has won the general election, ending leader Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, in a result that is likely to rattle the White House and reshape the country’s relationship with the EU.
Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orbán conceded defeat after what he described as a “painful” election result.
“I congratulated the victorious party,” Orbán told supporters in Budapest. “We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well.”
Thirty minutes before polls were set to close, a record 77.8% of the country’s voters – some seven percentage points above the previous 2002 record – had turned up at polling stations across the central European country. Throughout the hard-fought campaign Orbán and his rightwing populist government had consistently trailed in the polls, suggesting the election could bring an end to his efforts to transform Hungary into an “illiberal democracy” and reshape the country’s relations with the EU, Moscow and Washington. [Continue reading…]
As a child growing up in Budapest, Péter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orbán – at the time a leading figure in the country’s pro-democracy movement – hanging above his bed. Orbán was one of several political figures who adorned his bedroom, Magyar told a podcast last year, hinting at his excitement over the changes sweeping the country after the collapse of communism.
Now Magyar, 45, has been the driving force behind the ousting of Orbán, whose 16 years in power transformed the country into a “petri dish for illiberalism”.
Few could have predicted the meteoric rise of Magyar and his Tisza party. “He has built an opposition movement at amazing speed,” said Gábor Győri of Policy Solutions, a Budapest-based political research institute. “Never, since the history of this post-transition Hungary, have we seen a party rise this quickly.”
Conversations with those who know Magyar often alternate between admiration and antipathy. Many praise the tremendous movement he has built and the discipline he has shown as he crisscrosses the country, giving up to six speeches a day, while also describing him as someone with a short temper and a style that can be abrasive at times.
Others see him as the perfect fit for the magnitude of the moment. “I think, like all politicians, he can be a difficult person,” said Tamás Topolánszky, a film-maker who was part of a team that spent the past 18 months following Magyar for a film on the wider change sweeping Hungarian society.
Topolánszky described Magyar as authentic and passionate, but also someone who could be impatient at times. “I think that this is something that we Hungarians now see was necessary to get us to this point.” [Continue reading…]