Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok said a historic parliamentary election that’s become a referendum on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule was orderly and will signal direction for the nation.
The address by Sulyok came on Sunday after Hungarians voted in record numbers and as the opposition and the ruling party accused each other of irregularities and of planning to incite violence.
The president urged Hungarians to come together after an intense campaign that had divided the nation and became a point of focus for the Europe Union, the US and Russia. Results are expected later in the evening.
“Whatever the outcome of the election, it will give legitimacy to the direction Hungary will head in the coming period,” Sulyok said.
Opposition leader Peter Magyar said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome for his Tisza party. Orban’s outgoing Cabinet Minister, Gergely Gulyas, said at a post-election briefing that the ballot had been “celebration of democracy.”
Sulyok also said he’d respect political traditions and start talks with party leaders based on the outcome of the vote. It was an unusual intervention from the president, an Orban ally who has maintained a low profile, coming just as the polling stations closed and before any of the votes had been counted.
It’s the most consequential election since Hungary’s transition from communism. Magyar, a former ruling party insider, on Sunday cast the vote as a choice between East and West and as the last chance to stop the European Union and NATO member from sliding into Russia’s orbit.
Independent polls leading up to the election had pointed to a comfortable win for Magyar’s Tisza over the Fidesz party of the 62-year old Orban. The prime minister had long been a thorn in the side of the EU and was backed by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Also Read: Hungarians vote in landmark election closely watched by EU, Russia, US
Putin had relied on the Hungarian leader to sow division in the EU, block aid to Ukraine and dilute sanctions against Moscow. Orban’s ouster would likely to pave the way for the release of critical €90 billion ($106 billion) in assistance that Kyiv badly needs to continue defending itself more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Orban has gone from a liberal, anti-communist student leader in the 1980s to become center-right, conservative prime minister for the first time in 1998 at the age of 34. After losing power in 2002, he returned to office in 2010 as a pro-Kremlin nationalist on a mission to eradicate liberal democracy.
Magyar, who describes himself as a center-right conservative, united liberals and disaffected Fidesz voters like himself under the Tisza umbrella. He focused on addressing the economic concerns of Hungarians, including a cost-of-living, education and health-care crisis.
But he’s also pledged to oust the MAGA movement’s populist icon and to bring down his self-styled illiberal system, which has seen Orban extend his influence over all walks of life in Hungary and effectively rule by decree in recent years.
The opposition leader has vowed to cut short the term Orban’s key loyalists such as Sulyok, top justices, the chief prosecutor and the heads of several state regulators. He also plans to eventually pass a new constitution and change election rules that were widely seen as favoring Fidesz if his party wins a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
Magyar has argued that a “system change” is needed to bring Hungary back to the European mainstream and to unlock more than $20 billion in EU funds, which had been suspended over graft and rule of law concerns under Orban and which the cash-strapped budget badly needs.
Also Read: Hungary’s election could end Orban era and reshape its place in Europe
