The Hungarian Election of April 2026: A Change of Direction in an ‘Illiberal Democracy’
As widely predicted, Péter Magyar, President of the Respect and Freedom Party since 2024, led his party to a landslide victory in the Hungarian election on 12 April 2026. Voting booths in Hungary closed at 7 PM local time, and within a few hours it became clear that Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party was on the way out. Magyar’s election slogan of “Now or Never” (Most vagy soha!), adopted from a poem written by Sándor Petőfi during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, carried the day. The centre-right and pro-European Respect and Freedom Party, better known under its abbreviated name of Tisza, secured a two-thirds majority, or supermajority, with 138 seats in the 199-member Hungarian Parliament. Magyar’s victory was particularly well-received by EU leaders, while the Budapest Stock Exchange saw significant gains in direct response to his success.
Viktor Orbán saw his sixteen uninterrupted years as prime minister- the longest reign of any ruling EU leader-come to an end as his Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség) coalition was restricted to a mere 55 seats. The far-right Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk Mozgalo) came in third place, with six seats. Orbán accepted the “painful” result and conceded defeat, but pledged to continue to “serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition.” The record high turnout of 77.8%, the highest ever in a Hungarian election since the fall of Communism, reflected a widely held desire for change- primarily for economic reasons. Orbán appears to have lost votes in the cities and among young Hungarians, while retaining the support of many rural and older voters.
A victorious Magyar confirmed that “our country’s place is in Europe”, and that he would “guarantee the democratic functioning of our country” by restoring a system of checks and balances. Noting that the election was held “exactly 23 years to the day after there was a referendum on joining the European Union in Hungary”, Magyar declared his intention to be a strong ally in the EU and with NATO, thereby facilitating the unlocking of withheld EU funding. He pledged to visit Warsaw, Vienna, and Brussels in the near future. Magyar favours adoption of the euro, once Hungary becomes eligible to join the common currency bloc. In keeping with his anti-corruption agenda and a desire to remove Orbán’s stranglehold over state institutions, Magyar has been quick to demand the immediate resignations of Tamás Sulyok, President of the Republic, along with the Presidents of the Curia (Supreme Court), the Constitutional Court, the Judicial Office, and the Economic Competition Authority.
Péter Magyar, a lawyer by training, is a great nephew of Ferenc Mádl, who served as President of Hungary between 2000 and 2005. He was once married to Judit Varga, the Fidesz Justice Minister between 2019 and 2014. The couple divorced in March 2023. Once a Fidesz member himself, Magyar broke with the party after President Katalin Novák pardoned the former deputy director of a children’s home who had been convicted for covering up the crimes of a paedophile. Varga was forced to resign her parliamentary seat, while Magyar joined the fledgling Tisza party in 2024. In an early indication of its future success, the Tisza party won seven seats in its first major electoral outing in 2024, becoming Hungary’s second-largest party in the European Parliament.
Viktor Orbán, also a trained lawyer, first served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002. He was returned to power in a landslide majority in April 2010, following which he won a further three successive elections-in 2014, 2018, and 2022. During his political journey, Orbán transformed himself from a liberal anti-Soviet activist, as a leader of the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetség, or Fidesz), to a conservative and nationalist pro-Russian populist. He came to straddle the East-West divide by allying himself with both President Putin and President Trump. The latter sent US Vice-President J.D. Vance to Budapest shortly before the recent election, to intervene on Orbán’s behalf. Vance accused the EU of interfering in Hungary’s elections, while overlooking Trump’s own interest in the matter.
During Orbán’s time in power, Hungary became a troublesome outlier within the EU, out of all proportion to its relatively small size and a population of just around 9.5 million. The “disruptor-in-chief” fell out with the EU over many issues. He refused to provide asylum for refugees in 2015; objected to shared defence arrangements; rejected green energy in favour of fossil fuels; opposed financial aid and EU membership for Ukraine; traded with Russia despite sanctions; and restricted LGBTQ+ rights, citing “child protection” as reason not to comply. The EU retaliated by withholding as much as €17 billion in funds, amounting to 10% of the country’s nominal GDP.
While in power, Orbán tightened his hold over Hungary as he pushed through state control of the media, the central bank, the judiciary, and other state institutions. Orbán’s 2010 supermajority enabled him to consolidate political power in Hungary. A newly drafted constitution removing democratic checks and balances was approved by the parliament in April 201, coming in force on 1 January 2012. Electoral boundaries were redrawn following a new law that was passed in December 2011. Over time, the number of parliamentary seats was almost halved to 199, consisting of 106 single-member constituencies, where a first-past-the-post system is in place, and another 93 where seats are decided by closed national party lists and proportional representation. This redistricting was seen by many observers as a form of gerrymandering designed to maximise Fidesz’s chances of future electoral success.
Orbán’s brand of Hungarian nationalism resonated with many voters in a truncated nation-state, with a distinctive language and cultural identity, at the very frontiers of the EU, adjacent to the non-EU states of Serbia and Ukraine. The former Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismembered by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. The Kingdom of Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory to neighbouring states, which ended up with substantial Hungarian minorities. As part of an ongoing and idealistic project to restore ‘Greater Hungary’, Hungary’s Parliament passed a law in May 2010 allowing ethnic Hungarians residing abroad to apply for Hungarian citizenship. In 2012, ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring states also became eligible to vote in Hungarian elections, via mail-in ballots or local polling stations, in the hope of increasing Fidesz’s voter base.
Orbán came to position himself as a protector of national sovereignty and “racial purity” and as a defender of Christian values in the face of threats from “woke” multiculturalism, Western liberalism, and radical Islam. He eventually announced the “illiberal state” in a speech before young Hungarians at Băile Tusnad in Romania on 26 July 2014.
In the end, however, Hungary’s economy mattered the most to voters and proved to be the undoing of Viktor Orbán. Centralised control stifled economic growth, with low productivity and low- to medium-value-added production. Hungary became a manufacturing and assembly base for foreign corporations producing cars and machinery. Chronic underinvestment in human capital development led to a relatively low-skilled workforce, while the failure to invest in research and development impeded innovation and competitiveness. Tax policies mostly favoured those already well-off. A large and rising budget deficit, coupled with high borrowing costs and high debt-servicing requirements, was added to by generous public spending on flagship pro-family and pro-natalist policies designed to tackle population decline and falling fertility. High inflation, in the face of a continued erosion of real wages, led to a cost-of-living crisis for most, while elites linked to Orbán prospered in a climate of crony capitalism. Living standards, as measured by median disposable income per inhabitant, fell to the lowest in the EU. According to Transparency International Hungary scored 40 out of 100 on the Corruption Perception Index in 2025, making it 84th out of 182 countries, and the lowest-ranking EU member.
Hungary’s “illiberal democracy” has come out with flying colours on 12 April in what, by all accounts, are being considered as fair and free elections. As the country realigns itself within the EU, interesting times lie ahead. Economic stabilisation is the major priority, and Hungarians will expect Magyar to deliver on his promises, sooner rather than later, given their current predicament. Undoing Orbán’s extensive political legacy remains a longer-term project.
Ashis Banerjee