After Orban's defeat, Hungary's new government moves to undo his rule: democratic repair, or victor's purge?
Five months after Peter Magyar's pro-Western Tisza party won a two-thirds majority and ended Viktor Orban's 15-year rule, the new government is moving fast: amending the constitution to remove Orban-appointed President Tamas Sulyok and other officials, reversing changes Orban made to the judiciary, media and universities, and dropping Orban's veto on Ukraine's EU accession — letting membership talks resume in Luxembourg. Orban, meanwhile, was re-elected leader of his Fidesz party and vowed to fight on: 'I never, never give up.'
The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.
Magyar's Tisza party says its two-thirds mandate is to dismantle the 'illiberal' system Orban built — amending the constitution to remove his appointees (including President Sulyok), restoring independence to courts, media and universities that the new majority says Orban hollowed out, and ending Hungary's obstruction of Ukraine. Backers frame it as overdue democratic repair and a return to the European mainstream after 15 years of Orban's rule.
Orban, re-elected Fidesz leader by 729 of 737 delegates after running unopposed, took responsibility for April's defeat but declared 'I do not give up, I never, never give up.' He and his supporters cast the new majority's rapid constitutional changes and removal of his appointees as a partisan purge of state institutions, and defend his nationalist, self-described 'illiberal' model — which fostered close ties with Trump and Putin — as the will of the Hungarians who backed him since 2010.
