Although his populist Fidesz party won 44% of votes in Sunday’s EU election, a newcomer is threatening Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s grip on power.
ADVERTISEMENTViktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party won big at Hungary’s 2024 EU elections on Sunday, but lost major support.
The Hungarian Prime Minister’s ultra-nationalist party received the most votes (44%) and will have 11 MEPs. However, it also experienced great losses, dropping a whopping 11% compared to the 2022 general election.
This result is the party’s biggest defeat in 18 years.
Still, the 61-year-old was buoyed by the news, claiming it affirmed his government.
«To sum up the result of the European parliamentary election we can resume it best as a telegram that sounds like this: Migration full stop. Gender full stop. War full stop. Soros full stop, Brussels full stop,» he said.
Orban’s government has been hit with multiple scandals, including a sex abuse scandal that resulted in several key members of his party resigning.
Fidesz’s traditional opponents, including the social-democrat and green parties, only received eight percent of votes and did not meet the threshold for entry in European Parliament.
The threat of Tisza
But a new political contender formed a few months ago, Tisza, scored a mammoth 29% of votes and scooped seven seats, becoming a clear opposition force for Orbán’s anti-left and anti-Brussels agenda.
The party is headed by former-Fidesz-insider-turned-rival Péter Magyar, who said on Monday that the election results are «very clear».
«Fidesz only has one but very potent rival for the next national elections: our Tisza party,» he said.
Magyar, 43, has toldlocal media that he aims for his party to be firmly centrist and operate on a platform of anti-corruption and improving Hungarian’s quality of life.
Hungary is due to take over the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU in July.
