Orbán conceded, with tears in his eyes, saying: “However it turned out, we will serve our country and the Hungarian nation from the opposition.”
If the current margin of victory holds, Magyar will secure a supermajority in parliament that will allow him to unravel key features of Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” — demolishing the prime minister’s tight control over the judiciary, state companies and the media.
Orbán’s departure will come as a huge relief to the EU, whose systemic weaknesses he has exposed and exploited for years, most recently by helping Putin block €90 billion of European support to Ukraine.
A gleeful European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced: “Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight.”
A heavy loss for the Hungarian premier will also deliver a painful blow to Trump’s MAGA movement, which has viewed Hungary’s prime minister as a talismanic trailblazer for its own brand of anti-immigrant, Christian-oriented nationalism.
Brussels officials have long accused Orbán of undermining key pillars of Hungarian democracy — from the judiciary to the media — and of helping Putin block vital EU support to Kyiv, but the 27-nation bloc largely failed to tame his influence as its chief wrecker and disrupter.
