The 16 years in power of Viktor Orbán has finally come to an end and the system condemned as an “electoral autocracy” lies in tatters, defeated by Péter Magyar, who swayed a majority of Hungarians to bring it to an end.
“We did it,” Péter Magyar told a crowd of cheering supporters in a square beside the River Danube, overlooking Budapest’s magnificent parliament on the other side.
“Together we overthrew the Hungarian regime.”
Preliminary election results, based on more than 98% of votes counted, put his Tisza party on course for an extraordinary 138 seats, with Orbán’s Fidesz on 55 and the far-right Our Homeland on six.
For two years Magyar took his burgeoning movement around villages, town squares and cities, rallying Hungarians who had had enough of the cronyism and corruption that had become endemic over years.
“Never before in the history of democratic Hungary have so many people voted – and no single party has ever received such a strong mandate,” he said on Sunday night, after a record 79.5% of the electorate turned out to vote.
Orbán’s rule was built up through four successive election victories and sweeping majorities, but it was over in a matter of minutes.
As pro-Magyar supporters waited expectantly in the square on the Buda side of the Danube, the Tisza leader posted an extraordinary message on Facebook: “Viktor Orbán just called me on the phone and congratulated us on our victory.”
But moments later Orbán himself appeared on a stage in a conference centre a mile down-river on the other side of the Danube, surrounded by his glum-looking Fidesz party colleagues.
“The result of the election is clear and painful,” he told them, thanking the estimated 2.5 million Hungarians who stuck by him. “The days ahead of us are for us to heal our wounds.”
