Hungary Rejects Orbán After 16 Years Despite Support from Trump, Vance

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary will soon leave office after being soundly defeated by his center-right challenger, Péter Magyar, who was once a member of Mr. Orbán’s own party. The defeat came shortly after the outgoing prime minister held a campaign event with Vice President Vance. Mr. Orbán has been a kind of model for European and American conservatives looking to crack down on immigration, centralize power, and deploy the state to incentivize marriage and childbearing. He leaves office as one of President Putin’s last remaining allies in Europe. As of Sunday night, Mr. Orbán’s party, Fidesz, was on track to lose in a landslide. Mr. Magyar is poised to become prime minister with a parliamentary majority of around two-thirds of all seats, meaning he and his colleagues may have the power to change the nation’s constitution. In an address to supporters on Sunday night, Mr. Orbán conceded and thanked those who backed him, while promising to “rebuild” now that he has been voted out of office. “We don’t have the weight of governing the country so we have to rebuild our communities,” he said, according to a translation by the BBC. “We never give up, this is one thing people know about us, we never give up. The days ahead of us are for us to heal our wounds.”Mr. Magyar had a simple message for Hungarians on Sunday evening. “Thank you, Hungary!” he wrote. In separate posts, Mr. Magyar announced that Mr. Orbán had called him to concede, and that he had spoken to President Macron of France, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte, and the president of the European People’s Party, the largest party in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber. Just days before the election in Hungary, Mr. Vance was dispatched to the country to campaign alongside the prime minister. President Trump has long praised Mr. Orbán as a strong leader, and endorsed his re-election campaign this year. “Relations between Hungary and the United States have reached new heights of cooperation and spectacular achievement under my Administration, thanks largely to Prime Minister Orbán,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “I look forward to continuing working closely with him so that both of our Countries can further advance this tremendous path to SUCCESS and cooperation.”As Mr. Vance was addressing the crowd in Budapest last week, he took out his cell phone to call Mr. Trump. Talking to the crowd via speakerphone, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Orbán for his hardline stance on immigration. “Remember this, he didn’t allow people to storm your country and invade your country, like other people have, and ruin their countries,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s kept your country good. He’s kept Hungarian people in your country, and he’s done a fantastic job.”Mr. Vance made a similar pitch, bashing other European leaders and officials in Brussels who had disparaged the Hungarian prime minister. “Will you stand for sovereignty and democracy, for truth and for the God of our forefathers?” Mr. Vance asked rhetorically. “Then, my friends, go to the polls this weekend, stand with Viktor Orbán, because he stands for you, and he stands for all these things.”Mr. Magyar railed against corruption during his campaign for the premiership, but has made clear that he will not be changing his personal, conservative politics now that he has been swept into office on a wave of anti-Orbán sentiment. The campaign saw Mr. Magyar promise to increase defense spending and continue to crack down on immigration, though he has said he — unlike Mr. Orbán — will seek a more collaborative relationship with other European leaders and EU officials in Brussels.

Hungary Rejects Orbán After 16 Years Despite Support from Trump, Vance

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