Péter Magyar topples Orbán, wins Hungary's supermajority election

Péter Magyar did what no Hungarian opposition figure had managed in more than a decade: he ended Viktor Orbán’s hold on power and delivered a two-thirds parliamentary supermajority that can rewrite the country’s political rules.

Magyar’s Tisza Party won control of the 199-seat National Assembly after turnout climbed to nearly 80%, the highest level since Hungary’s 1990 democratic transition. The result was a political earthquake for a system Orbán had shaped for 16 years, first as prime minister from 1998 to 2002 and then again from 2010 until now, through a governing model long criticized in Europe for democratic backsliding, media control and rule-of-law concerns.

The scale of the defeat matters as much as the defeat itself. A two-thirds majority in Hungary allows constitutional amendments, giving Magyar the parliamentary force to confront the legal architecture Orbán’s Fidesz built around courts, election rules, public institutions and the media environment. That makes the new government’s promise to restore balance far harder than a simple change of leadership. The question now is not whether Orbán’s era has ended, but how much of his system can actually be unwound.

Magyar, 45, emerged from inside Orbán’s own political world and became his main challenger in 2024 after a clemency scandal detonated the governing camp. The crisis centered on a pardon in a child sexual abuse cover-up case, and it forced President Katalin Novák to resign on February 10, 2024, followed by former justice minister Judit Varga. Magyar’s rise was amplified by social media and by a growing sense that the government’s internal discipline had cracked.

He campaigned on a pledge to roll back corruption and cronyism, restore ties with the European Union and unlock about €17 billion in frozen EU funds held back over rule-of-law disputes. Brussels has signaled that reform will not be automatic. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said there was “swift work to be done” on reforms, and EU officials were scheduled to meet Magyar’s team in Budapest to discuss funding and Hungary’s role on issues including Ukraine.

Orbán conceded defeat after the vote, a rare collapse for a leader who had won four straight landslides since 2010. Analysts said the outcome could reshape Hungary’s relations with Brussels, weaken its pro-Russia posture and reset a media landscape long bent toward the ruling party. Freedom House rated Hungary “Partly Free” in its 2025 report with a score of 65 out of 100, a reminder that winning office is only the first test. Restoring democratic checks in a captured state is the harder one.