Magyar Defeats Orban, Tisza Wins Hungarian Majority

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar claimed a decisive victory in the country's general election on Sunday, defeating longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orban and ending his 16-year tenure in power. With voting stations closing at 7 p.m. local time in Budapest and across Hungary, preliminary results showed Magyars center-right Tisza party securing a two-thirds majority in the 199-seat parliament, projected to win 135 to 137 seats compared to 57 for Orban's Fidesz party.

Orban conceded the election late Sunday evening, describing the outcome as painful but clear. "The responsibility and possibility of governing was not given to us," he told supporters at Fidesz campaign offices in Budapest. "I have congratulated the winner. We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well." Magyar, addressing thousands of cheering supporters along the Danube River embankment, declared the result a liberation for Hungary. "Together, we liberated Hungary and got rid of the Orban regime," he said. He noted that no party in democratic Hungary's history had received such a strong mandate, with Tisza's win reflecting unprecedented voter engagement.