Eve is here. I hope I don’t sweep under Conor’s feet with this short article about Viktor Orbán’s landslide victory over his opponent and what it means. First, the mainstream view comes courtesy of Politico’s Europe newsletter.
Orbán wins election as rival: Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar inflicts a crushing election defeat on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, ending his 16-year grip on power and opening a new chapter in Budapest’s relations with the EU and the world…
Relief in Brussels: Officials and diplomats in Brussels expressed relief after the EU has been at odds for years over Orban’s illiberal policies and alignment with Russia. “The muddy election results could have been a nightmare,” an EU diplomat told Playbook. “I think everyone felt relieved.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that Hungary would be “back on the European path” in one of several Hungarian-language posts sent minutes after Mr. Orban’s concession. Other EU and European leaders also celebrated the result.
Why it matters: Orban’s defeat is a blow to both Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, who have supported Europe’s self-proclaimed illiberal leader. The decision to send Vice President J.D. Vance to Budapest in the final stages of the campaign symbolized President Trump’s investment in the outcome.
Transatlantic tally: POLITICO’s Alex Burns has some smart thoughts on how the results will resonate in Washington and what Democrats should learn from them. Reuters reports how US Democrats are rooting for the defeat of President Trump’s closest European ally.
The takeaway: Vance’s intervention ultimately failed to sway votes amid widespread voter dissatisfaction with corruption, high inflation and slow growth in one of the EU’s worst-performing economies.
Decisive victory: Another important point is that President Magyar appears to have won a supermajority of votes that will allow him to enact far-reaching reforms.
What it means: The centre-right opposition leader has vowed to deliver judicial reforms that would force the city of Brussels to release billions of euros in EU funds that had been frozen over rule of law concerns. It will also be given the power to remove Orban supporters from key positions…
Time is running out: “I call on all the puppets who have served Orbán’s government for the past 16 years to do the same and leave office,” he said, naming the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the attorney general and other government officials.
Ukraine angle: Prime Minister Orbán’s defeat also raised the prospect that Budapest could lift its veto on major EU policy plans for Ukraine, including a 90 billion euro loan to Kiev that Hungary had blocked.
Not so soon: But as Max reported, hopes among Kiev’s allies of an immediate turnaround in Budapest’s attitude toward Ukraine may be overstated. The next prime minister is a nationalist who has refused to send weapons to Kiev and signaled that he would put Ukraine’s EU membership bid to a referendum.
Also consider:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his son to campaign for Mr. Orban. Prime Minister Netanyahu sent a personal video to Mr. Orban’s rally. Mr. Orbán lost by 14 points, the biggest landslide in the history of Hungarian democracy.
Why was Prime Minister Netanyahu so concerned?
Orbán was the only EU leader to veto sanctions… pic.twitter.com/bGLr1lBJLZ
— S͎a͎l͎a͎d͎i͎n͎🇸🇴⚖️🕋✍️ (@InaHassan3) April 12, 2026
Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst specializing in the global systemic transition to multipolarity in the new Cold War. He holds a doctorate from MGIMO, which is affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Originally published on his website
Hungarian opposition parties backed by the EU and Ukraine just won a two-thirds supermajority in the latest parliamentary elections, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16-year term in office. His disastrous defeat followed the freezing of 17 billion euros in funds allocated by the EU on the pretext of the rule of law, Russiagate conspiracy theories stemming from wiretaps of Mr. Orban and his foreign minister, and Ukrainian energy blackmail and blackmail. Liberal globalists like Ursula von der Leyen, Alex Soros and Donald Tusk predictably celebrated.
Although the aforementioned factors played a role in turning public opinion against Orbán, some other factors are perhaps more important. For example, he is an older politician who does not appeal as naturally to young people as his relatively young rival Peter Magyar. Since he has been president for 16 years, the opposition has exploited anti-incumbency sentiment and ended up blaming him for the economic downturn, despite his best efforts given the circumstances. There are also many accusations of corruption.
The socio-political system built by Mr Orbán will now be dismantled, as the opposition has a two-thirds supermajority and is now able to amend the constitution. The possibility of a witch-hunt against him, his foreign minister, and other conservative nationalists cannot be ruled out for Russiagate-related reasons. His policies supporting traditional values may soon become a thing of the past. The Magyars claim to be hard-liners on immigration, but could change course to please the EU and flood Hungary.
On the economic front, decoupling from Russian energy could lead to higher prices, but it could be done in stages to avoid wasting the goodwill it has gained among voters. The same applies to his plan to replace Hungary’s national currency, the forint, with the euro. Therefore, meaningful change is underfoot, but may not happen immediately. But the end result will be a weakening, and perhaps a complete loss, of Hungarian sovereignty, undoing Mr. Orbán’s hard-won gains.
Similarly, Hungary cannot be expected to maintain its reputation as Europe’s conservative and nationalist stronghold, with Poland expected to take over instead. Poland was competing with Hungary for this position until its (admittedly very imperfect) conservative nationalists were “democratically expelled” in the fall of 2023. However, Poland narrowly elected a conservative-nationalist president last year, and there is a possibility that the former ruling party, which was allied with the president, will return to power. Next parliamentary elections in fall 2027.
Polish conservatism, unlike the better-known Hungarian or German conservatism, is explicitly anti-Russian. It also envisions a junior partnership with the United States, rather than one where Europe is truly sovereign and has different interests. From Poland’s perspective, this is a necessary cost of continuing US support for Russia, a “realistic” recognition of the limits of European leadership, but it is understandably controversial and unpopular outside of Poland and the Baltic States.
All in all, the EU, Ukraine, and the liberal globalists of the West will represent a dramatic end to the “Battle of Hungary”, which will facilitate the EU’s transition to a de facto war posture. Mr Orbán stood in the way of this, but has now been “democratically ousted”. Like-minded countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia may try to take Hungary’s role, but are considered more vulnerable to EU pressure, including color revolutions. Therefore, it may be inevitable that the EU will go to war with Russia.
