April 14, 2026, Per Olsson, Socialistisk Alternative (ISA in Sweden)<\/p>\n
The next step \u2013 a workers\u2019 struggle for real change<\/strong><\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s (April 12) parliamentary election in Hungary turned into a stinging and historic defeat for the autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n and his party, the ruling far-right Fidesz. The election dealt a blow to all the world\u2019s Trumpists and resulted\u00a0in a defeat for both Washington and Moscow.<\/p>\n Although the election was primarily a vote of no confidence in Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16-year rule, the outcome has given hope for change. This must now serve as a shot in the arm for the struggle.<\/p>\n In Budapest and other Hungarian cities, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s defeat was celebrated by jubilant crowds. The desire to oust Orb\u00e1n was also evident in the record number of voters\u2014turnout was the highest ever, nearing 80 percent.<\/p>\n Fidesz not only lost in the cities but also saw its support decline in rural areas, where the party had traditionally held strongholds.<\/p>\n After 16 years in power, Orb\u00e1n and Fidesz lost power to the opposition party Tisza (Respect and Freedom), which won not only the election but also a supermajority\u2014two-thirds of the seats in parliament.<\/p>\n Tisza received 53.56 percent of the vote and 138 of the 199 seats. This, in turn, opens the door to amending the constitution that Orb\u00e1n rewrote to strengthen his authoritarian rule and prevent electoral losses. The election results are not only redrawing\u00a0Hungary\u2019s political map but are having repercussions far beyond the country\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n Tisza is a right-wing party, and its leader, P\u00e9ter Magyar, was a member of Fidesz until 2024 and for many years belonged to the ruling clique around Orb\u00e1n. It is the lack of a strong left-wing alternative and a strong labor movement that has enabled Tisza\u00a0to capitalize on the growing discontent with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s corrupt rule and nepotism, as well as all the injustices and deteriorations that have followed in the wake of the government\u2019s right-wing policies and the stagnant economy. For more than three years, the\u00a0Hungarian economy has been stagnant, and since discontent exploded on a large scale at the end of 2022\u2014with teacher and student protests\u2014there have been numerous mass mobilizations against the government.<\/p>\n In 2024, the struggle reached a new level after it was revealed that the president and the government had attempted to cover up abuses that occurred at a state-run children\u2019s home and pardoned the director who had been convicted for protecting the perpetrators. This scandal and others like it fueled the anger against the government. This anger was not lessened by the fact that Orb\u00e1n\u2019s regime constantly tried to hide its politics of hate and anti-feminism behind phrases about \u201cprotecting Christian, Western morality\u201d mixed with the constant lie that they were \u201cprotecting children\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n 200,000 people marched in Budapest Pride last June, despite the government\u2019s ban, surveillance cameras, and threats of fines. Magyar, however, did not join the Pride parade.<\/p>\n In this year\u2019s election, Tisza stood as the only alternative to Fidesz and the far-right party Mi Haz\u00e1nk (Our Homeland), which has roots in Jobbik\u2019s neo-fascist wing. (Jobbik split in 2018). The so-called Socialist Party did not even field candidates but urged voters to support Tisza\u2019s candidates.<\/p>\n It also appears that the majority of Tisza\u2019s voters consider themselves to the left of Magyar.<\/p>\n \u201cMagyar is a conservative, a former Fidesz insider who broke with Orb\u00e1n in 2024. His party, Tisza, attracts a strikingly diverse voter base: 43 percent of his voters identify as liberals, 22 percent as left-wing supporters, 10 percent as Greens, and only 11 percent as right-wing conservatives. Holding that coalition together while implementing sweeping institutional reforms will be a balancing act in itself,\u201d France24 wrote on April 13, concluding that: \u201cWhen it comes to the rule of law, migration, and LGBTQ rights, the path forward is neither straight nor guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n In the days leading up to the election, U.S. Vice President JD Vance was in Hungary to support Orb\u00e1n, and six weeks earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the country to celebrate the \u201cgolden era of cooperation between the U.S. and Hungary.\u201d During his visit, Rubio told Orb\u00e1n that \u201ca victory for you is a victory for us.\u201d \u201cYour success is our success.\u201d But instead, both ended up sharing in the defeat\u2014Orb\u00e1n\u2019s election loss is a political defeat for both Trump 2.0 and all the far-right parties that were in Hungary to support Orb\u00e1n during the campaign.<\/p>\n In March, the far-right international organization, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held its annual conference in Budapest to support Orb\u00e1n. Trump sent a video greeting to the conference, which featured Argentina\u2019s President Javier Milei as \u201cits star,\u201d writes BalkanInsight in its report. When Milei concluded the conference, he said: \u201cViktor Orb\u00e1n has become a beacon for all of us who refuse to accept that the West\u2019s destiny is destined to be marked by managed decline\u201d (BalkanInsight, 23\u00a0March).<\/p>\n In connection with this White Power conference, one of the European Parliament\u2019s two far-right groups, Patriots for Europe, held its first-ever public rally. At that meeting, Marine Le Pen of the National Rally, Matteo Salvini of the Northern League, and Geert Wilders of the PVV, among others, gave their wholehearted support to Orb\u00e1n, \u201cwho has made Hungary something extraordinary,\u201d according to Wilders.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s support, along with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s promise to buy more weapons and natural gas from the U.S., likely contributed to the election defeat. Instead of further strengthening Europe\u2019s far right, Trump 2.0 has resulted in division, and an increasing number of far-right parties\u2014particularly due to the war against Iran\u2014have felt compelled to distance themselves from Washington.<\/p>\n In Brussels, the election has been hailed as a \u201cvictory for Europe.\u201d European governments have been trying to outdo one another in praising Magyar and taking credit for Orb\u00e1n\u2019s crushing defeat. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the result \u201ca historic moment, not just for Hungary, but for European democracy.\u201d For Europe\u2019s leaders, much is at stake in increasing and streamlining military and economic support for Ukraine\u2014something Orb\u00e1n has hindered. Within the EU, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government has stood closest\u00a0to both Moscow and Beijing, and has thus been seen as an obstacle to the expansion of EU imperialists and big business.<\/p>\n Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, for his part, called the election a \u201chistoric victory.\u201d All of this is an attempt to hide the fact that the British, Swedish, and other governments have copied Orb\u00e1n\u2019s inhumane refugee policy and racist division.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Budapest, this week I met the country\u2019s minister for the EU, J\u00e1nos B\u00f3ka, who said Hungary\u2019s approach has been vindicated by the restrictive measures now being put forward in the UK\u2014where the government plans to make it harder for refugees to bring family members to the UK\u2014as well as in countries like Ireland, Denmark, and Sweden (\u2026) now we see most countries are doing what we have been doing for the past 10 years\u201d, (BBC, 3 September 2025).<\/p>\n The election results pave the way for Hungary to begin receiving some of the loans and aid that the EU has frozen since 2022\u201323. Magyar has said that he \u201cwants better relations with the EU,\u201d and his government will likely be quickly rewarded with aid and loans from Brussels to alleviate the country\u2019s economic crisis, and so that the new Hungarian government will approve new EU loans and weapons for Ukraine, which Orb\u00e1n opposed.<\/p>\n But it was not the relationship with Brussels that proved decisive in the election, and even Magyar may turn against Brussels to try to deflect domestic discontent.<\/p>\n Rather, it was the perfect storm caused by a series of interacting factors and events: scandals, abuse of power, and corruption combined with constant cuts to welfare, high inflation (Hungary is the EU country where prices have risen the most overall since\u00a02020, and the average annual wage in Hungary has plummeted to the third lowest in the EU), an economy in crisis, and a demographic crisis\u2014the population has shrunk by 500,000 since 2011.<\/p>\n The election result was primarily a gauge of the extent of dissatisfaction rather than an expression of strong support for the right-wing opportunists Magyar and Tisza.<\/p>\n On several issues, the difference between Orb\u00e1n and Tisza is small. In the European Parliament, Tisza and Fidesz have often shared the same views regarding Ukraine, agriculture, and migration.<\/p>\n Magyar\u2019s election platform contains few concrete promises. He has, however, promised better pensions and tax cuts. \u201cBut his position on LGBTQ issues is vague, while his views on immigration are even stricter than Orb\u00e1n\u2019s, as he has said he would end the government\u2019s guest worker program. He is generally distrustful of the media and often clashes with them. Overall, his promise to voters is: a functioning country with a Western identity and Christian-conservative politics, but without what he calls the corruption of Fidesz\u201d (euronews, 11 April ).<\/p>\n Even if the new government receives EU support, new cuts loom.<\/p>\n \u201cThe winner of the Hungarian parliamentary election on April 12 will need to cut social spending to stabilize public finances, as the economic recovery faces strains due to the global energy price shock,\u201d wrote the Reuters news agency on March 24, citing an analysis by S&P Global. \u201cWe expect that the incoming government after the 2026 election (regardless of its composition) will need to implement measures that reduce social spending.\u201d Otherwise, Hungary\u2019s credit rating will be downgraded, S&P Global warned.<\/p>\n The fact that Orb\u00e1n, who was long seen as invincible, is now gone could give the struggle and the working class new confidence. Unless the struggle and the working class\u2019s political self-organization take steps forward in the more favorable situation that\u00a0has now arisen, there is a risk that the hopes that have been raised will turn into deep demoralization when Magyar\u2019s government proves incapable of implementing lasting improvements.<\/p>\n It is not the interests of the working class that Magyar will serve, but those of capitalism and the elite of which he is a part.<\/p>\n In the struggle for real and lasting improvements, the working class can rely only on its own strength and solidarity. It is by building its own party\u2014a socialist workers\u2019 party\u2014and fighting to abolish capitalism that the welcome end of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s rule can also be followed by jobs, welfare, and housing for all, as well as an end to oppression and discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 14, 2026, Per Olsson, Socialistisk Alternative (ISA in Sweden) The next step \u2013 a workers\u2019 struggle for real change Sunday\u2019s (April 12) parliamentary election in Hungary turned into a stinging and historic defeat for the autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n and his party, the ruling far-right Fidesz. The election dealt a blow to all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[148,124],"tags":[4751,38542,37677],"class_list":{"0":"post-49108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-news","9":"tag-hungary","10":"tag-tisza","11":"tag-trumpism"},"yoast_head":"\n