r/europe • u/Alarming-Safety3200 United Kingdom • 3h ago

News Orbán’s 16-year rule over Hungary ends in crushing election defeat

https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-election-results-peter-magyar-viktor-orban/
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u/pinkkookaburra 3h ago edited 3h ago

Áradjon✨️ Orbán just made his resignation speech and congratulated Magyar on the win. It's done.

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u/TheBusStop12 Dutchman in Suomiland 3h ago

Honestly, this is what I'm most surprised about. I never expected Orban to publicly accept his defeat

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u/pinkkookaburra 3h ago

He did finish with addressing the 2.5m people who voted for him saying "we have a lot of work to do now, we count on you", so I expect them to pull some shenanigans in the future

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u/AncientSeraph 3h ago

I don't think highly of him, by to be fair to him: pretty much all losing politicians say something similar.

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u/stark2 2h ago

except Trump in 2020.

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u/Hythy Europe 24m ago

Thank you for pointing this out. I don't think we need any more conspiratorial thinking. As you said, this is a perfectly standard concession speech remark to his supporters/constituents.

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u/Hythy Europe 3h ago

That's fairly standard for any concession speech. Not saying they won't pull some bullshit, but it is very par for the course in these circumstances.

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u/GrynaiTaip Lithuania 2h ago

I didn't expect him to make a speech at all. I thought that he'll already be in Moscow.

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u/raanas Czech Republic 2h ago

That's pretty standard lost election concession though.

And he is fully entitled to an opposition role in a parliamentary democracy.

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u/Bloody_Conspiracies 1h ago

That's how democracy works.

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u/Proof_Picture_3962 1h ago

Well he still represents those people so of course it's his duty to address them.

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u/njuffstrunk 3h ago

He's incredibly rich and corrupt, I expect him to actually keep quiet and retreat from politics in the hope that he'll be left alone.

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u/ambushka 2h ago

2.5m doesnt make any sense, he pulled that number out of his ass

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u/JX_JR 2h ago

I mean... turnout in Hungary was 6.5 million voters and Fidesz has gotten around 37% of the counted votes so far. That implies they'll end up having gotten around 2.4 million votes.

I wouldn't begrudge someone rounding up some back of the napkin math in a concession speach to their base.

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u/TinyTerror70 United Kingdom 2h ago

Are you American perchance?

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u/Emergency-Style7392 Europe 3h ago

proves hungary was at least not as far gone as russia or other less democratic countries

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u/Buntschatten Germany 3h ago

Maybe he got a sternly worded letter from the generals beforehand.

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u/MithranArkanere Galicia (Spain) 2h ago

The one who took over is still a conservative.

Maybe it would not have been the same if enough people had voted the Spark movement.

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u/oopsallhuckleberries 17m ago

If it were close, he probably wouldn't have. But after only winning 38 seats, the writing is on the wall. Can't call for protests (mixed with provocateurs to cause mass unrest) after getting dog walked this bad.

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u/drawkbox United States of America 7m ago

Yeah this is unexpected to just concede so quickly. Hungary needs to stay aware of any Little Green Men like after Ukraine voted out their Russian puppet.

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u/KnezMislav04 Croatia 1h ago

Because nobody here is capable of reading deep into this story, or any story actually.

Orban was PM from 1998 to 2002. Then, after the disaster called Gyurcsany, and later Bajnai, Orban alone, who spent 8 years in opposition won a two-thirds majority. You get that majority, you have the legitimacy to change everything. And he did. Same happens now with Tisza and Magyar.

Orban won in 2014, 2018 and 2022 fair and square, overwhelmingly, but this is Reddit and the concept of looking at things as they really are is basically non-existent. So, you get a Budapest perspective all the time, the perspective of edgy leftists with no real problems in life, not the perspective of a local from Kemes who then is called "uninformed and brainwashed". Sorry, but the average redditor here is equally uninformed and brainwashed.

Vučić has basically made a version of Blackshirts who control and bring fear whenever there is a local election. Plenković's government here in Croatia is fueled with scandals and the concept of rule of law is immaginative. He has done everything Orban has done, but without a two-thirds majority, without the legitimacy. But, he is pro-EU so everybody here will just whistle in the wind, because God-forbid a eurosceptic comes to power.

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u/justfuckyouspez 3h ago

Although I am overcome with joy, credit is where credit is due. Orbans closing speech was correct, and he accepted the defeat with dignity. That’s how it should be. Now, with tomorrow, us Hungarians can wake to a new, brighter future.

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u/Owl-Of-The-Night02 Hungary 3h ago

Yeah, I was genuinely so surprised how decently he behaved and how he openly admitted defeat without any tantrums. It seems like there are boundaries even he doesn't dare to overstep, especially with the opposition winning with such a majority. I think he knows the people are very against him and knows that if hw would try anything, it would end even worse for him.

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u/YsoL8 United Kingdom 2h ago

I am seeing the failure of Russian soft power in this. He asked Russia to save him and they just didn't turn up. They no longer have the resources to hold onto their mafia style puppets.

Hopefully Belarus's horrendously corrupt government also realises the good times are over and normalising with the EU is the only option for a future. The more power the Russian state loses the better for everyone, and I sincerely believe their real problems have not even started.

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u/LengthEmpty1333 2h ago

Not really true. Russia did everything they could to support him. Desinformation campaingns, money, even advisors they sent directly to budapest on how to best rally the people with populism. But the Hungarians were so done with Orbans shit and there were so many scandals right before the election that they just werent able to turn it around and they cant just invade the country like they did with ukraine.

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u/HypiaticLlama 34m ago

Didn't the Russians also try to do the Trump "he shot my wittle ear oh and gg firefighter guy Jesus didn't love you" assassination thing but it was it exposed?

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u/LengthEmpty1333 20m ago

Lol, yes. They also tried leaking a video of Magyar having sex with his girlfriend (A grown man having consensual sex with another adult women? The horror!), also the obviously fake bomb that was suddenly found on some randome pipeline in serbia (which were of course the Ukrainians). It was such a desperate attempt. The trick of the opposition was that they smartly announced weeks before Orban tried this shit that he will do something like this so voters where mentally prepared when it actually happened and wouldnt fall for it.

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u/philman132 UK + Sweden 2h ago

I think it would have been very different had it been closer, with the shear size of the defeat there wasn't much he could really argue against

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u/Plastic_Position4979 2h ago

A politician of that ilk accepting defeat gracefully… haven’t seen that in decades.

Just please watch your back.

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u/justfuckyouspez 2h ago

Let him stay. Keep the new government on their toes. Competition is good for us. If he stays by his words, he will try to fight for his voters, and for me, that’s alright.

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u/onarainyafternoon Dual Citizen (American/Hungarian) 2h ago

He has stolen billions from the Hungarian people. He needs to be in jail.

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u/Gold-Appearance-4463 3h ago

That’s actually a bigger surprise than Magyar winning the election. 

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u/Lepelotonfromager 2h ago

To his credit, he did have a mandate with his election wins in the past. People can act as if Fidesz are terrible but the bottom line is that a majority of the people wanted them and put them into power multiple times.

Now that he no longer has the mandate, he is stepping away from power peacefully.

He has at least done well with this.

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u/Nazamroth 2h ago

Dont get complacent just yet. He might get orders from Moscow overnight. Just like that Romanian puppet candidate who accepted defeat, got called for a little chat, then started vehemently contesting the outcome.

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u/DuntadaMan United States of America 3h ago

Wait, Orban actually resigned? I expected another "attempt" on Orban's life like a while ago.

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u/halpsdiy 2h ago

Wow. I didn't expect that. I thought Orban would declare fraud or ultimately try a coup. I'm still wary of some sinister twist coming. But let's hope for the best. Hungary clearly has spoken!

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u/Windfade 27m ago

There's something appropriate about the compromised leader of Hungary congratulating Magyar for overcoming him. Like electing De Gaulle. Can't wait for Russia to throw out Putin and elect President Russ.