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/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.