Magyar’s win may unlock EU funds for Hungary

The two-thirds supermajority secured by Peter Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party means it will have a free hand to strengthen the rule of law and potentially unlock billions in EU funding. His victory was expected to transform political dynamics within EU, where Orban had upended the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions, prompting concerns he sought to break it up from the inside.

It will also reverberate among far-right movements around the world, which have viewed Orban as a beacon for how nationalist populism can be used to wage culture wars and leverage state power to undermine opponents.

In a speech to tens of thousands of jubilant supporters at avictory party along the Danube river, Magyar said his voters had rewritten Hungarian history. “Tonight, truth prevailed over lies. Today, we won because Hungarians didn’t ask what their homeland could do for them — they asked what they could do for their homeland. You found the answer. And you followed through,” he said.

On the streets of Budapest, drivers blared car horns and cranked up anti-govt songs while people marching in the streets chanted and screamed. Many revellers chanted “Ruszkik haza!” or “Russians go home!” — a phrase used during Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution, and which had gained increasing currency amid Orbán’s drift toward Moscow.

Orban, the EU’s longest-serving leader and one of its biggest antagonists, travelled a long road from his early days as a liberal, antiSoviet firebrand to the Russia-friendly nationalist admired by the global far-right.

The EU will be waiting to see how Magyar changes Hungary’s approach to Ukraine. Orban repeatedly frustrated EU efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia’s full-scale invasion, while cultivating close ties to President Putin and refusing to end Hungary’s dependence on Russian energy imports.

Magyar, 45, rose to become Orbán’s most serious challenger. A former insider within Orbán’s Fidesz, Magyar broke with the party in 2024 and quickly formed Tisza. Since then, he has toured Hungary relentlessly, holding rallies in settlements big and small in a campaign that recently had him visiting up to six towns daily.

Tisza is a member of the European People’s Party, the mainstream, centre-right political family with leaders governing 12 of the European Union’s 27 nations.