A Notable Shift in Hungarian Politics: Orbán is Defeated
It was as if a cancer patient had begun to walk a path to recovery. That is how one might describe the evening of April 12, 2026, when nearly 3.4 million voters united in Viktor Orbán's defeat. After 16 years of one-party rule, a political party formed just two years earlier beat the unbeatable and did so democratically, despite the ruling party’s countless attempts to manipulate the voters to its own advantage, and with the greatest margin of victory in history.
FIDESZ begun when Viktor Orbán and 36 fellow young university and college students founded the Alliance of Young Democrats (abbreviated as FIDESZ) in the spring of 1988, which was a liberal movement at the time of its founding and for several years thereafter. FIDESZ’s three-point self-definition was the advocacy of the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, corruption-free politics, and cultural diversity (pluralism).
Over the years, the party shifted toward conservatism and the political right starting and centralized its operations. In 1998, it formed a coalition government with the MDF and the Independent Smallholders, Agricultural Workers and Civic Party. Viktor Orbán, then 35 years old, became prime minister for the first time.
During his second term between 2010 and 2026, Viktor Orbán had a historic opportunity to elevate his country to the ranks of the European Union’s major nations. In the 2010s, Hungary was one of the EU’s largest net recipients: it received funding equivalent to 3.3% of its GDP annually.
As a result of domestic developments, Orbán increasingly found himself at odds with the current EU leadership and the major European political families, particularly the European People’s Party, of which FIDESZ was a member. As a result, numerous proceedings were initiated against Hungary, and for years the EU has blocked the majority of EU funds allocated to Hungary due to the failure to restore the rule of law.
This confrontation was only exacerbated by Viktor Orbán’s foreign policy, which increasingly aligned with the economic and political agendas toward the EU adopted by Russia and China, as well as by the United States following Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. Under Orbán, the Hungarian government has maintained exceptionally good relations with the leadership of countries that cannot be described as democratic at all, or that seek to assert their position as world powers at the expense of the EU.
During the Orbán era, there were opposition newspapers that were bought up and closed, news sites restructured to praise the government. All channels of public service media were used to continuously emphasize the Government's position; the state employed influencers through various foundations to continuously discredit the opposition and the Union, and to convey government propaganda.
However, in the midst of a controversial pardon, a new political player, Péter Magyar, emerged. He was also a member of FIDESZ and held various positions (mostly in state-owned companies), and in an interview given to perhaps the largest independent online channel, he essentially became Viktor Orbán's challenger from one moment to the next. FIDESZ attacked Magyar then and ever since, trying to smear him in every way.
Due to election rules, Péter Magyar took over a small party established in 2020 in 2024 in order to run in the European Parliament elections, and as a completely new player, he gained almost 30% of the votes.
Magyar's campaign leading up to the 2026 election actually started after the 2024 European elections and he used social media to target younger audiences. In addition, Magyar ensured that not a day goes by without another government scandal coming to light. Fidesz politicians published posts trying to discredit Magyar several times a day. In vain has FIDESZ tried in every way to present Orbán as a factor in world politics, with whom the leaders of all great powers sit down to talk and support him at any time, if in the meantime the majority of voters felt on their own skin that the country was not functioning as it should, and that people and families were not moving forward, but taking a step backwards.
On 12 April, the Hungarian people decided. Those who voted for Péter Magyar's party do not want to get as close to Russia and China as Orbán did, and especially do not want to help the interests of these countries over the interests of their country and the EU.
Shortly after 9 a.m. on the night of the election, Viktor Orbán congratulated Péter Magyar on his election victory, thus ending the 16 years of FIDESZ's rule.
In the end, the TISZA party ended the rule of FIDESZ with the overwhelming electoral system redesigned by the Orbán government. Péter Magyar was able to form a government with 141 MPs, and in the end, 3 parties got into the National Assembly, the 3rd is the far-right party called Mi Hazánk with 6 MPs. A new opportunity now emerges for Hungary and its relationship with the EU.