Hungary is entering a major political transition as Péter Magyar prepares to take over from Viktor Orban’s long tenure.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) – Hungary’s next prime minister, Hungarian Péterarrived on Saturday at the Assembly building to take the oath, concluding Viktor Orbán his 16-year autocratic rule.
Magyar’s center-right Tisza party defeated Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz in a stunning shot last month, winning more votes and seats in Parliament than any other party in Hungary’s post-communist history.
The victory, which gave Tisza a two-thirds parliamentary majority, will allow him to undo many of the policies that earned Orban a reputation among many of his critics as a far-right authoritariansqueeze down about possible corruption and transform the political dynamic within the European Union, where the former prime minister had upended the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions.
A parliament without Orban
On Saturday, Magyar entered the grand neo-Gothic parliament building along with 140 representatives of his party, controlling 141 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament. Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition will control 52 seats, out of 135, while the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Fatherland) party will hold six seats.
The 199 representatives took their oath at around 11 am local time. Orbán was not among them for the first time since the formation of Hungary’s first post-communist Parliament in 1990.
The new national assembly has 54 women lawmakers, most from the Tisza party – more than a quarter of the total and the most in Hungary’s history.
Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider in Orbán’s party, has vowed to end official corruption, which he argues has robbed Hungarians of economic opportunity.
The new prime minister has called on the Hungarians to participate an all-day “regime change” celebration outside Parliament to mark his inauguration and the end of the Orban era. Several thousand people had already gathered as the new representatives were sworn in.
After taking the oath at around 3pm local time, Magyar will address the crowd outside.
Repairing relations with the EU
Magyar has promised to repair his country’s ties with the EU, which Orbán had pushed to the breaking pointand to restore Hungary’s place among the Western democracies, whose position had been questioned as Orbán got closer and closer to Russia.
Unlocking about 17 billion euros ($20 billion) of EU funds for Hungary frozen during Orbán’s time in office due to rule of law and corruption concerns are among the incoming prime minister’s top priorities. The money is badly needed to help jump-start Hungary’s struggling economy, which has stalled for the past four years.
As a sign of this commitment, Tisza officials say they will once again fly the EU flag on the facade of the Parliament building after Orban’s government removed it in 2014.
A party to celebrate the end of Orban’s rule
The liberal mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, posted an open invitation to a party by the Danube river later on Saturday to celebrate the fall of Orban and the formation of the new government.
Karacsony wrote in a social media post that the party needed to express gratitude to Hungarians who have spent years speaking out against Orbán’s system: “Teachers fired, civilians and journalists humiliated, small churches torn apart.”
“We can finally put this era behind us – but first, let’s remember the everyday heroes and show our gratitude with a farewell to the system,” he wrote on Facebook.
By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press
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