Liberals around Europe are raising their glasses in celebration after seeing the results of the election in Hungary on Sunday.
With nearly 99% of the votes counted, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party had secured only 55 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, bringing Orbán’s 16-year stint as prime minister to an end despite an endorsement last week from President Donald Trump.
‘Hungary has sent a very clear signal against right-wing populism.’
“He is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary — VIKTOR ORBÁN WILL NEVER LET THE GREAT PEOPLE OF HUNGARY DOWN,” Trump wrote Tuesday.
Tisza, the party led by Orbán’s former underling Peter Magyar, managed to secure 138 seats. Our Homeland Movement, a conservative nationalist party, won six seats.
Tisza’s supermajority — won in an election in which approximately 77.8% of eligible voters participated — will enable Magyar and his party to alter the country’s constitution and possibly undo the Fidesz party’s legacy.
Tisza’s manifesto reportedly advocates for a more pro-EU, pro-NATO approach and commits to expediting Hungary’s embrace of the euro as its official currency.
Liberal leaders in Europe were apparently ecstatic over the end of Orbán’s rule and his Christian, nationalist, “migrant-free, pro-family” agenda — an agenda that delivered domestic results that prompted the European Union to deny Hungary billions of euros in funding.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whom a recent survey showed had the lowest approval rating among 24 democratically elected world leaders, characterized the result as a “heavy defeat” for “right-wing populism,” reported Deutsche Welle.
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“Hungary has sent a very clear signal against right-wing populism across the whole world. In that respect, yesterday was … a good day,” said Merz. “This demonstrates that our democratic societies are evidently much more resilient to Russian propaganda and further external interference in such elections.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, stated, “Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that “France welcomes the victory of democratic participation, the Hungarian people’s commitment to the values of the European Union, and Hungary’s commitment to Europe.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who threatened Orbán on March 5, also celebrated Tisza’s rise to power. “Ukraine has always strived for good-neighborly relations with every European country, and we are ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary. Europe and every European nation must strengthen; millions of Europeans yearn for cooperation and stability.”
The Orbán government angered the European liberal establishment in part with its rejection of LGBT cultural imperialism, its refusal to implement the EU’s radical migration policies, and its refusal to “fulfill Ukraine’s demands.”
Magyar said on Facebook that he will “work for a free, European, functional and humane Hungary in the next four years.”
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