After serving 16 years as Prime Minister, Hungarian voters ousted Viktor Orban on Sunday, rejecting authoritarian policies and a right-wing movement that Orban spearheaded.<\/p>\n
Election victor Peter Magyar, a former loyalist of Mr Orban who campaigned against corruption and on on a regular basis issues akin to health care and public transport, has pledged to rebuild Hungary\u2019s relationships with the European Union and NATO \u2013 ties that frayed under Mr Orban.<\/p>\n
President Trump\u2019s \u2018MAGA\u2019 politicians have long supported Orban\u2019s government, seeing it for instance of conservative, anti-globalist politics in motion. But even US vice-president JD Vance\u2019s intervention within the campaign, by which he endorsed Orban during a visit to Budapest earlier this month, couldn\u2019t win over the votes Orban needed.<\/p>\n
Dr Sherrill Stroschein, Lecturer in Politics within the Department of Political Science on the University College London, told Metro<\/strong> that Orban\u2019s loss is a significant win for European politics.<\/p>\n \u2018Orban\u2019s defeat is earthquake. It can really change the way in which things looked like they were going, by way of the right-wing movement seeming inevitable,\u2019 she explained.<\/p>\n \u2018These people had tried to depend on appearing inevitable, as if things were naturally moving toward right-wing populism. Trump and Vance had been riding that very same idea\u2014this sort of right-wing international. <\/p>\n Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018And the victory of Magyar P\u00e9ter, though he’s conservative, defeated this organisation that was very much tied in with Russia and the more problematic facets of Trump and Vance.\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Balazs Szent-Ivanyi, professor at Aston University in Politics and International Relations, told Metro Orban\u2019s defeat won\u2019t mean much for the US.<\/p>\n \u2018Orb\u00e1n had outsized influence because he demonstrated how you’ll be able to stay in power while promoting fairly unorthodox policies when he first got here to power within the early 2010s,\u2019 he explained.<\/p>\n \u2018Those policies have grow to be more mainstream and have been adopted by others. We\u2019ve also seen Trump copying quite so much from Orb\u00e1n\u2019s playbook.\u2019<\/p>\n Orban\u2019s defeat after sixteen years in power shows that hard-right populist leaders who’ve \u2018eroded democratic institutions\u2019 can still be defeated through constitutional means, Dr Szent-Ivanyi said.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s an uphill battle for the opposition, but in the event that they have the appropriate leader at the appropriate time\u2014and conditions align, like economic dissatisfaction\u2014then it is feasible. The message for the US is analogous: despite Trump rolling back certain freedoms, including across the press, he shouldn’t be undefeatable.\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Eitan Tzelgov, from the University of East Anglia, said: \u2018After sixteen years, the architect of illiberal democracy is out. Viktor Orb\u00e1n wrote the playbook that populist leaders worldwide got here to Budapest to review \u2013 he was \u2018Trump before Trump\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018But he ran out of enemies to demonise and faced an unprecedented combination: a unified opposition and a conservative challenger from inside his own political world.\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Stroschein and Dr Szent-Ivanyi each consider Vance\u2019s visit to Budapest and endorsement of Orban didn\u2019t make a difference in an already hotly contested election.<\/p>\n \u2018It was an enormous stadium, it was packed, but the true victory in Hungary got here from a two-year campaign that was extremely well organised by Tisza. That\u2019s the true story,\u2019 Dr Stroschein said.<\/p>\n Dr Szent-Ivanyi added: \u2018The typical Hungarian voter likely didn\u2019t know who J.D. Vance was. They\u2019d recognise Trump, but probably not Vance. So it\u2019s unlikely his visit brought in recent voters.<\/p>\n \u2018Still, Orb\u00e1n has long valued connections with MAGA figures. His government invested heavily in constructing relationships with US conservative circles and evangelical groups. These connections were useful domestically, as Orb\u00e1n could present himself as a worldwide figure despite being somewhat isolated throughout the EU.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018But I don\u2019t think Vance\u2019s visit had any meaningful effect on the election consequence\u2014it neither helped nor hurt significantly. It was more of a humid squib.\u2019<\/p>\n After wielding power for greater than a decade, Orban is on his way out of Hungary\u2019s government \u2013 but while conceding the race, he vowed not to provide up.<\/p>\n Dr Stroschein observed: \u2018This might need been a way for him to psychologically process a serious defeat, or he might proceed to operate within the background. His network still holds plenty of power, but a few of them may flee the country. It\u2019s definitely something to look at going forward.\u2019<\/p>\n Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\tEnroll for all of the most recent stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
What does this mean for international politics?<\/h2>\n
![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_292395133-be75.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646\")
\t<\/div>Vance\u2019s visit was a \u2018damp squib\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"BUDAPEST,](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SEI_292305032-eba5.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646\")
\t<\/div>