Péter Magyar compares media coverage to Nazi-era Germany and aims to ‘restore its public service character’

Hungary’s prime minister-elect has vowed to suspend state media news coverage, describing it as a “propaganda machine,” when his government takes office around mid-May.

Péter Magyar, whose landslide election victory on Sunday brought an end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power, detailed his plans for the suspension as he gave two tense interviews to public radio and television on Wednesday.

Leaders of Poland and Germany hail Péter Magyar’s majority as a turning of the tide – but analysts say there were other reasons for defeat of prime minister

For Poland’s Donald Tusk, the crushing defeat of Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, after 16 years in office was evidence that the world was no longer “condemned to authoritarian and corrupt governments”.

Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, also believes the two-thirds majority secured by Orbán’s centre-right challenger, Péter Magyar, in Sunday’s elections was “a clear signal against rightwing populism” that showed “the pendulum is swinging back”.

Péter Magyar did not need to dismantle the system – but he understood that Hungarians care more about the cost of living than conspiracies

Hungary’s election delivered an unprecedented victory for Viktor Orbán’s challenger. With a record turnout of nearly 80% and a supermajority for the Tisza party of almost 70% of the seats, this was not merely a change of government: it was a change of regime, compressed into a single election night.

After 16 years in power, Orbán became the victim of his own creation. Hungary’s electoral machinery, carefully engineered to convert a relative majority into overwhelming parliamentary dominance, worked perfectly – just not for him. In the end, the opposition leader, Péter Magyar, did not need to dismantle the system; he simply recognised the rules of the game and played to win. Orbán’s 2011 electoral laws, designed to punish a fragmented opposition, ultimately proved fatal to their creator, when he was faced with a challenger who could turn those winner-takes-all mechanics to his advantage.

Tibor Dessewffy is director of the digital sociology research centre at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations

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Jahrelang hat Ungarns Premier in der EU die Interessen von Kremlchef Putin vertreten. Doch nach Orbáns historischer Abwahl muss sich Russland umstellen. Wie groß kann sein Einfluss als Öl- und Gaslieferant noch sein?

US president says he wasn’t ‘involved’ in Hungarian election despite JD Vance’s trip to Budapest ahead of polls

After Péter Magyar’s criticism of the state broadcaster earlier today (11:43 and 12:37), the state media authority hit back at his claims of being shut out during the campaign, saying it had extended multiple invitations to Magyar and his party.

The incoming leader used his interviews with the state broadcasters to confront the outlets over their coverage, accusing them of spreading fear and lies and comparing their coverage to propaganda from North Korea and Nazi-era Germany. “Every Hungarian deserves a public service media that broadcasts the truth,” Magyar told Kossuth state radio.

“We have just witnessed the last days of a propaganda machine. After the formation of the Tisza government, we will suspend the news services of the ‘public’ media until its public service character is restored.”

Poland has shown that it takes far more time and energy to rebuild a country’s rule of law than it does to dismantle it

“Historic” is an adjective used too often these days, at the risk of trivialising the word and diluting its substance. But Sunday’s Hungarian election, which marked the fall of Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, deserves the label. The chief architect of European illiberalism, the man who dismantled Hungary’s rule of law, presided over a system of endemic corruption and stood as an avowed enemy of Ukraine is gone.

The scale of the moment is undeniable. For Ukraine and for the European project, the relief is palpable. With an election turnout of 79.5% – the highest the country has seen since the fall of the USSR – and a strong mobilisation of the youth vote, the Hungarian people have delivered a clear mandate for change. Despite the explicit support of Donald Trump and the Maga-sphere, despite an electoral map gerrymandered in his favour and a locked-down media landscape, Orbán lost. What is more, he lost so decisively that he was forced to concede immediately. There is, without a doubt, reason for enthusiasts of liberal democracy to celebrate – a “Budapest spring” in its own right.

Blanche Leridon is director of French studies at Institut Montaigne, an author and a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris

With the ejection of Trumpian hero Viktor Orbán, Hungarians demanded a restored democracy. Now, Europe must support them

To be in Budapest last Sunday evening was to see history again being made on the Danube. As rapturous crowds gathered on the riverbank opposite the brightly illuminated parliament building, chanting “Ria-ria Hungaria!” and “Hungary-Europe!”, we all knew that the implications of the dramatic election victory for the Tisza party of Péter Magyar go far beyond this one central European country. The result is very good news for Ukraine and the European Union. It’s correspondingly bad news for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the US president, Donald Trump, those twin backers of Viktor Orbán’s regime. The critical question now is whether Hungary can be the first country in the world to emerge from such a far-reaching populist erosion of democracy – the “Orbánisation” Trump is trying to emulate in the US – and whether Europe has the political will and imagination to enable it to succeed.

Already on Friday evening, standing amid a huge crowd of young people at a “system-changer” concert on Heroes’ Square, I felt the energy for change. In the very square where, back in 1989, I watched a fiery young student leader named Viktor Orbán call for the end of the weary old communist regime and for the Russians to go home, I now saw a new generation of Hungarians calling for the end of a weary old regime led by this same Orbán and his Fidesz party. “Filthy Fidesz!” they cried and, yes, “Russians go home!” For everyone knows that today’s Orbán is Putin’s man in Brussels.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist. His book The Magic Lantern contains an eyewitness account of the young Orbán’s 1989 appearance in Heroes’ Square

Nach der Abwahl von Viktor Orbán in Ungarn distanzieren sich Ministerpräsident Söder und seine Staatskanzlei wortreich von dessen Regierung. Allerdings: Auf Eis lagen die Beziehungen nie.

Loss of closest European ally will force Kremlin to consider whether non-autocratic states can ever be reliable partners

• Europe live – latest updates

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was pleased that Hungary’s prime minister-elect, Péter Magyar, appeared open to pragmatic dialogue, as Moscow adopts a wait-and-see approach after the election loss of its closest partner in Europe, Viktor Orbán.

“For now, we can note with satisfaction, as far as we understand, his [Magyar’s] willingness to engage in pragmatic dialogue,” said the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. “In this instance, there is mutual willingness on our part, and we will then proceed to take our cue from the specific steps taken by the new Hungarian government.”

Im Mai wird Péter Magyar sein Amt antreten, aber das System Viktor Orbáns besteht fort. Bekommt der neue Premier dringend benötigte EU-Gelder, bevor es umgebaut ist?

Seine erste große Pressekonferenz gestaltet der Wahlsieger völlig anders als alles, was man aus der Ära Orbán kennt. Zu Russland und der Ukraine äußert der designierte Ministerpräsident aber ein Sowohl-als-auch.

Excitement and disbelief mix on the streets of Budapest after record turnout drives opposition’s landslide victory

• Péter Magyar vows to pursue those who ‘plundered’ Hungary, after election win

In a small plaza facing Budapest’s Nyugati train station, Gabor, 40, confessed that he was very, very hungover.

“I partied all night,” he said, laughing. “It was crazy, I thought Fidesz was going to win. Now I’m really hopeful.”

Kampf gegen Korruption, Begrenzung der Amtszeit, Beitritt zur Euro-Zone: Péter Magyar will Orbáns Anti-EU-Kurs korrigieren. Ein Überblick seiner Reformvorhaben.

Even if migration policy and lukewarm support for Ukraine will raise tensions, Hungary will now be arguing for its own interests rather than Russia’s

• What Magyar’s victory means for EU and Hungary

In Brussels, the relief was palpable after the defeat of Viktor Orbán, the EU leader who recently declared himself at Vladimir Putin’s service. For the EU, Péter Magyar’s victory was all the sweeter, as voters decisively rejected Orbán’s fear-mongering campaign that sought to portray him in cahoots with the “dangerous” European Commission leader, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In 16 years as Hungary’s prime minister, Orbán has slowed, opposed, mocked or blocked numerous EU decisions – above all on European support for Ukraine.

Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule has come to an end after the opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, won the Hungary election by a landslide. Orbán quickly conceded after what he described as a 'painful but unambiguous' result. His defeat will come as a blow to Donald Trump, who has repeatedly endorsed Orbán and whose vice-president, JD Vance, had travelled to Budapest days before the election. All eyes are now on Magyar to see how Hungary’s relationship with the EU and Nato could change after years of strained relations. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian's European community affairs correspondent, Ashifa Kassam

The defeat of Orbánism is a globally significant political moment. But it is, above all, a triumph for the citizens who mobilised to take their country back

Prior to his landslide election victory in 2010, which was to lead to 16 unbroken years in power, Viktor Orbán would tell supporters: “We have only to win once, but then properly.” Achieving a so-called supermajority by winning two-thirds of parliamentary seats allowed Mr Orbán to change the constitution, and begin turning Hungary into a soft autocracy. From the judiciary to the media and universities, the checks and balances of a democratic society were steadily dismantled and minorities were marginalised, as the country became a beacon for the global far right and a nationalist thorn in the side of Brussels.

On Sunday, stunningly, it was Mr Orbán’s centre-right challenger, Péter Magyar, who “won properly”. After a record turnout, his Tisza party is all but certain to win its own supermajority. Given Mr Orbán’s control of state media and gerrymandering of constituencies to favour his Fidesz party, this was a truly remarkable result.

Péter Magyar has promised to repair Hungary’s ties with Brussels after years of strained relations

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Péter Magyar’s resounding election victory brings an end to 16 years of rightwing populist rule under Viktor Orbán. But the effects of that win are likely to be felt well beyond Hungary’s borders, from Brussels to Moscow and from Kyiv to Washington.

Welche Entlastungen haben die Koalitionsspitzen am Wochenende entschieden? Außerdem: Was erwartet die EU jetzt von Ungarns Wahlgewinner Péter Magyar?

Polens Regierungschef Donald Tusk freut sich über den Wahlsieg von Péter Magyar. Der erste Auslandsbesuch des Ungarn soll nach Warschau gehen. Doch dort weiß man auch: Das Regieren wird hart.

Als Sonntagabend klar war, dass die Zeit des Viktor Orbán vorbei ist, tanzten die Menschen in den Straßen von Budapest. Das Land ist wie in einem Rausch, auch wenn niemand weiß, was Péter Magyar mit Ungarn wirklich vorhat.