Good morning from Budapest, as the city reluctantly and not without some difficulties wakes up from the celebrations the night before, which went on to 5am and beyond.
View image in fullscreenJoyful revellers greet one another in an underground metro station as they celebrate the resounding Tisza party win in Hungarian parliamentary elections in Budapest, Hungary. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesWith 98.94% of votes counted, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party is projected to get 138 seats in the new parliament, with just 55 for Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz and six for the far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) party.
These numbers mean that the new government will have the critical two-thirds majority (133 or more seats) required to comprehensively overhaul the country’s laws, creating a real chance to genuinely break with the Orbán era.
Or, as András Bíró-Nagy of Policy Solutions put it to me,
“Because if [they have] the constitutional super-majority, this is when he can do a change of regime, and not only a change of government … then dismantling the Orbán regime is really possible, meaning that both the economic and the political capture of the [Orbán] regime could be adressed with the two-thirds majority.”
View image in fullscreenPeter Magyar (C), lead candidate of the Tisza party, speaks to supporters after polling stations closed during Hungarian parliamentary elections in Budapest, Hungary. Photograph: János Kummer/Getty ImagesWe are going to hear from Magyar again today as he is expected to give a press conference to offer a more detailed reaction to the vote and talk about his plans for the new administration.
Separately, we should also hear from the team of international observers who monitored the vote as they present their early findings.
And, well, we are still waiting for any reaction from the White House. Donald Trump and JD Vance had so much to say about the election before it happened, but are uncharacteristically quiet since last night.
It’s Monday, 13 April 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
