Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party Secures Supermajority in Hungarian Parliamentary Election

Péter Magyar’s opposition Tisza party won a supermajority in the Hungarian parliamentary election held in April 2026, ending Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. The new Hungarian prime minister will be sworn in on Saturday. The election results set off celebrations in Budapest and Brussels in April 2026.

Magyar, a former member of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, has a conservative background. He avoided any pronouncements on progressive issues on the campaign trail. An estimated 80% of Hungary’s media is controlled by Fidesz loyalists.

A poll carried out in the days after the April 2026 Hungarian election was published on Thursday. About 77% of Tisza voters polled said they supported an ambitious climate policy. While 71% of Tisza voters polled supported or somewhat supported the new government protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ people, an area that experienced dramatic rollbacks under Viktor Orbán.

Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations, which commissioned the polling, said: “That was my biggest surprise in this polling. There is a very clear mandate for the new government to have a more progressive stance. ” The actions planned by Magyar and his government on climate and LGBTQ+ rights remain vague despite more than two years of campaigning and a 240-page election manifesto produced by the Tisza party.

The poll also revealed divisions on foreign policy questions central to the EU. While 64% of those polled said they expected the new government to improve relations with Kyiv, only 24% backed Budapest providing financial support for Ukraine and 12% backed the provision of military support. More than half of those surveyed, 52%, were opposed to halting Hungary’s Russian energy imports.

Pawel Zerka said: “Péter Magyar’s landslide victory was a vote for domestic change, not for a geopolitical U-turn. 73% of respondents said they were confident that Hungary would gain access to the frozen recovery funds.

The Guardian reported that the EU’s efforts to reshape its relationship with Hungary will partly depend on whether Magyar can first focus on domestic change. Fidesz holds 52 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament. Pawel Zerka said: “Viktor Orbán still has ways to control the situation, at least partly through his people at various levels of state institutions.

The Guardian reported that the poll highlights conflicting pressures facing the new government as it prepares to take office.