BUDAPEST, Apr 13 \u2013 Incumbent Hungarian PM Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16 years in power is over, and the system condemned as an \u201celectoral autocracy\u201d lies in tatters, defeated by a 45-year-old former party insider who convinced a majority of Hungarians to bring it to an end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did it,\u201d P\u00e9ter Magyar told a crowd of cheering supporters in a square beside the River Danube, overlooking Budapest\u2019s magnificent parliament on the other side.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether we overthrew the Hungarian regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preliminary results, based on more than 98% of votes counted, put his Tisza party on course for an extraordinary 138 seats, with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz on 55 and the far-right Our Homeland on six.<\/p>\n
For two years Magyar took his burgeoning movement around villages, town squares and cities, rallying Hungarians who had had enough of the cronyism and corruption that had become endemic over years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever before in the history of democratic Hungary have so many people voted \u2013 and no single party has ever received such a strong mandate,\u201d he said on Sunday night, after a record 79% of the electorate turned out to vote.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n\u2019s rule was built up through four successive election victories and sweeping majorities, but it was over in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n
As pro-Magyar supporters waited expectantly in the square on the Buda side of the Danube, the Tisza leader posted an extraordinary message on Facebook: \u201cViktor Orb\u00e1n just called me on the phone and congratulated us on our victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was barely time to digest what had just happened and only 30% of the vote had so far been counted.<\/p>\n
But moments later Orb\u00e1n himself appeared on a stage in a conference centre a mile down-river on the other side of the Danube, surrounded by his glum-looking Fidesz party colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result of the election is clear and painful,\u201d he told them, thanking the estimated 2.5 million Hungarians who stuck by him. \u201cThe days ahead of us are for us to heal our wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Word began to spread among Magyar supporters, and at the nearby hotel that had become party HQ, Tisza activists hugged each other.<\/p>\n
Magyar has promised to reverse Orb\u00e1n-era changes to education and health, tackle corruption, restore the independence of the judiciary and kill off the widely loathed system of patronage known as NER that helped enrich party loyalists and squander state resources.<\/p>\n
To make those changes to the constitution, he needed a two-thirds majority of 133 seats, and although the final results are not yet in, latest results suggest Tisza is on course for 138.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BUDAPEST, Apr 13 \u2013 Incumbent Hungarian PM Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16 years in power is over, and the system condemned as an \u201celectoral autocracy\u201d lies in tatters, defeated by a 45-year-old former party insider who convinced a majority of Hungarians to bring it to an end. \u201cWe did it,\u201d P\u00e9ter Magyar told a crowd of cheering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}