In Hungary’s parliamentary election, Peter Magyar’s opposition party Tisza won 138 seats, stripping Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz of its majority. Together with the Christian Democratic People’s Party, the former ruling alliance will now hold only 55 seats. International relations expert Sanja Tepavcevic described the result as a major defeat for Orban and a sign that his political era is ending, although, she said, he will not disappear from Hungarian politics.
Tepavcevic argues that Magyar will inherit a system Orban spent years building: dependent courts, weakened independent media, and a political network geared toward reproducing itself. Against that backdrop, Tisza’s victory is even more notable because, after leaving Fidesz, Magyar never appeared in state media, the expert noted.
In her view, the vote was above all a protest vote, not an ideological one. Magyar is not Orban’s direct ideological opposite: his task, Tepavcevic said, is to return the country to a course more acceptable to the EU and to reduce corruption and authoritarian practices. She also linked Tisza’s success to the fact that Magyar was an insider who could expose how the system worked from within.
On foreign policy, the expert expects a softer line. Magyar’s first foreign trip is planned to Poland, followed by Austria, and only then Brussels. In her view, this points to closer cooperation with European institutions, though not to a complete break with the previous course.
Relations with Russia, Tepavcevic said, will remain pragmatic because of Hungary’s energy dependence and infrastructure tied to Russian oil and the Druzhba pipeline. At the same time, Magyar’s victory may signal a gradual move away from resisting any reduction of that dependence.
The expert also recalled that an EU loan of 90 billion euros for Ukraine had been blocked by Budapest’s veto. After his victory, Magyar said he would not stand in the way, although Hungary itself is not expected to contribute funding.
“I hope relations with Ukraine become more diplomatic, more normal,”Tepavcevic said, while adding that no radical turn in Kyiv’s favor should be expected.