Orbán Steps Down: The End of a Political Era in Hungary
Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Saturday evening via a video statement on social media that he will not take up his seat in parliament, marking the formal exit of the political strongman who ruled Hungary for 16 years.
“I am now needed not in parliament, but in the reorganisation of the patriotic movement,” Orbán said in his statement. Despite his Fidesz party suffering a historic collapse in the April 12 general election — dropping from 135 seats to just 52 — Orbán had secured a parliamentary mandate through the party’s proportional representation list.
New Leadership for Fidesz Parliamentary Bloc
Following a meeting of Fidesz officials, the 62-year-old announced that the party’s parliamentary bloc would be led from Monday by Gulyás Gergely, who until now served as the minister overseeing the prime minister’s office.
Orbán has held a parliamentary seat in one electoral format or another since 1990 and has led Fidesz throughout that entire period. He has served as Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, becoming the dominant figure in Hungarian politics.
Why Voters Turned Away
However, voters abandoned Orbán in large numbers. Growing public anger over allegations of corruption and graft during his tenure, combined with declining living standards, proved to be the key drivers of this political earthquake.
The victorious Tisza party, led by former Fidesz insider Péter Magyar, won more than a two-thirds majority in the 199-seat parliament, paving the way for a reset of both Hungary’s domestic policies and its global relationships.
The New Government’s Policy Direction
Hungary’s incoming prime minister has promised to reverse Orbán-era changes to education and healthcare, tackle corruption, restore the independence of the judiciary, and dismantle the widely loathed National Cooperation System (NER) — a patronage network that enriched party loyalists while squandering state resources.
On foreign policy, while Orbán aligned himself closely with former US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Russians go home” became a frequent chant among Tisza supporters during the campaign. New leader Magyar has pledged to seek more cordial ties with Brussels and Kyiv, rather than serving as a stumbling block for the EU and Ukraine as Orbán did.
Timeline for Power Transfer
The Tisza leader has urged a swift handover of power, and Hungary’s new parliament is scheduled to hold its first session on May 9. Meanwhile, Orbán’s fate as Fidesz leader will be decided at a party conference in June. He has vowed to continue shaping the nationalist movement.
The EU has previously approved a €90 billion loan for Ukraine and reopened the Druzhba oil pipeline, ending a deadlock caused by Hungarian obstruction. Orbán’s departure is seen as a major shift in Europe’s geopolitical landscape.
Source: BBC News