Hungary: Orban's right-wing party wins EU election but loses major support

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.

Viktor 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.