Hungary<\/a> has entered a new political chapter as P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/a> arrived at the Parliament building on Saturday to be sworn in as prime minister<\/a>, marking the end of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>\u2019s 16-year rule.<\/p>\n Magyar\u2019s centre-right Tisza party delivered a stunning blow to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s nationalist-populist Fidesz<\/a> last month, securing more votes and parliamentary seats than any other party in Hungary\u2019s post-Communist history. <\/p>\n This victory is poised to dismantle many of the policies that earned Orb\u00e1n a reputation among critics as a far-right authoritarian, address alleged corruption, and reshape Hungary\u2019s dynamics within the European Union<\/a>, where Orb\u00e1n frequently vetoed key decisions.<\/p>\n On Saturday, Magyar entered the sprawling neo-Gothic parliament alongside 140 of his party representatives, now controlling 141 of Hungary’s 199 seats. <\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz-KDNP coalition will hold 52 seats, a significant reduction from their previous 135, while the far-right Mi Haz\u00e1nk (Our Homeland) party secured six seats. <\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n\u2019s absence from the inaugural session, a first since Hungary\u2019s first post-Communist Parliament formed in 1990, underscores the profound shift. Following his defeat, Orb\u00e1n stated he would focus on rebuilding his nationalist-populist political community.<\/p>\n Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider within Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party, has pledged to eradicate official corruption, which he argues has deprived Hungarians of economic opportunity. <\/p>\n The new prime minister has called on citizens to attend an all-day “regime-change” celebration outside Parliament to commemorate his inauguration and the conclusion of the Orb\u00e1n era. He is expected to address the crowd after taking his oath.<\/p>\n A key priority for Magyar is to mend Hungary\u2019s strained relationship with the EU, which Orb\u00e1n had pushed to breaking point, and to restore the country\u2019s standing among Western democracies, a position questioned as Orb\u00e1n drew closer to Russia<\/a>. <\/p>\n Unlocking approximately \u20ac17 billion (\u00a314.5 billion) in EU funds, frozen during Orb\u00e1n\u2019s tenure over rule-of-law and corruption concerns, is paramount for Hungary\u2019s struggling economy, which has stagnated for the past four years. <\/p>\n In a symbolic gesture, Tisza officials have announced they will reinstate the EU flag on the Parliament building\u2019s facade, removed by Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government in 2014.<\/p>\n Budapest<\/a>\u2019s liberal mayor, Gergely Kar\u00e1csony, extended an open invitation to a celebration by the Danube River<\/a> later on Saturday, marking Orb\u00e1n\u2019s fall and the formation of the new government. <\/p>\n Kar\u00e1csony posted on social media, expressing gratitude to Hungarians who had long opposed Orb\u00e1n\u2019s system: “Teachers fired, civilians and journalists humiliated, small churches torn apart.” <\/p>\n He concluded: “We can finally leave this era behind us \u2014 but first, let us remember the everyday heroes and express our gratitude with a farewell to the system.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[23014,47671,2000,299,5187,1699,1234,44888,2190,6214,3181,264507,50171,11854,2249,285,20885,12184,264508],"class_list":{"0":"post-948158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-budapest","9":"tag-color-image","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-government","15":"tag-horizontal","16":"tag-hungary","17":"tag-leader","18":"tag-leadership","19":"tag-oath","20":"tag-office","21":"tag-peter-magyar","22":"tag-photography","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-politics-and-government","25":"tag-prime-minister","26":"tag-respect-and-freedom-party"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116544320481085841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Viktor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2026-04-13T194850Z_220293546_RC2GIIA2ANKY_RTRMADP_3_HUNGARY-ELECTION-MARKETS.jpg\")
Viktor Orban\u2019s 16-year rule is ending (Reuters)<\/p>\n