BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – APRIL 12: People arrive to cast their votes during the Hungarian parliamentary elections at a polling station on April 12, 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Janos Kummer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Janos Kummer | Getty Images News | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Hungarians started\u00a0vot<\/a>ing on Sunday in an\u00a0election<\/a>\u00a0that could end Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s \u200b16-year hold on power, rattle Russia and send shockwaves through right-wing circles across the West, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House.<\/p>\n Orban, a eurosceptic nationalist, has carved \u200cout a model of an “illiberal democracy” seen as a blueprint by Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and its admirers in Europe.<\/p>\n But many Hungarians have\u00a0grown increasingly weary<\/a>\u00a0of Orban, 62, after three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs, as well as reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth.<\/p>\n Opinion polls have shown Orban’s Fidesz party trailing\u00a0Peter Magyar<\/a>‘s upstart centre-right opposition Tisza party by 7-9 percentage points, with Tisza at around 38-41%.<\/p>\n Voting in the \u200belection for the 199-seat parliament started at 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) and is due to close at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n Vote could bring record turnout, pollsters say<\/p>\n “I think we need change \u200bin the country. We need an improvement in public mood, we are full of tensions in many areas and the current government only fuels \u2060these sentiments,” said Mihaly Bacsi, 27, after casting his vote for Tisza in a Budapest polling station.<\/p>\n Pollsters said the election could bring record turnout.<\/p>\n “It would be important to return to our Western commitment, \u200bthis is where Fidesz also started a long time ago and it could be that we will return to the Western path without (Fidesz).”<\/p>\n The vote is being closely watched in\u00a0Brussels<\/a>, with many EU peers \u200bcriticising Orban, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a close Trump ally, over what they say is an erosion of Hungary’s democratic rule, media freedom and minority rights.<\/p>\n For Hungary’s eastern neighbour Ukraine, an Orban defeat could mean the unblocking of a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) European Union loan vital for Kyiv’s war effort. It would also deprive Russia of its closest ally in the EU.<\/p>\n Orban has cast the election as a choice between\u00a0“war and peace”<\/a>. During campaigning, \u200bthe government blanketed the country with signs warning that Tisza leader Magyar would drag Hungary into Russia’s war with Ukraine, something he strongly denies.<\/p>\n “I am looking forward to Sunday’s election with the \u200bbest hope,” Orban told supporters in his birthplace Szekesfehervar.<\/p>\n “If we know ourselves well, if we know our country well and if we know our own people well, then I must say Hungarians will vote for safety on \u200cSunday,” he \u2060added.<\/p>\n Public discontent<\/p>\n Orban has won public endorsements from the Trump administration – culminating in a visit to Budapest by Vice President JD Vance last week – as well as from the Kremlin and far-right leaders in Europe.<\/p>\n But his campaign has been shaken by media reports alleging that his government colluded with Moscow. Orban, who denies any wrongdoing, says his goal is to protect Hungary’s national identity and traditional Christian values within the EU and its security in a dangerous world.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, former Orban loyalist Magyar, 45, has tapped into discontent over alleged state corruption and falling living standards, with\u00a0young<\/a>\u00a0voters particularly eager for change.<\/p>\n “I am \u200bvery excited but also very scared,” said Kriszta \u200bTokes, a 24-year-old who sells postcards and \u2060trinkets in Budapest. “I know that my future depends on this,” she said, adding that she plans to leave Hungary if Orban wins.<\/p>\n While Orban’s party has done good things “on paper,” Tokes said, referring to massive\u00a0fiscal<\/a>\u00a0handouts he has provided to shore up support, she believed young people were struggling more than \u200bthe government realised.<\/p>\n