In a ceremony that one attendee described as the first time they felt 'good to be Hungarian,' pro-European centre-right leader Péter Magyar was sworn in as prime minister of Hungary on Saturday, officially closing the book on Viktor Orbán's 16-year tenure. The event, held outside the neo-Gothic parliament building, saw crowds cheering and occasionally booing Fidesz lawmakers as Magyar invited the nation to 'write Hungarian history' together.
Magyar's landslide victory last month saw his Tisza party win 141 of 199 parliamentary seats, a stunning outcome for a former Fidesz insider who turned whistleblower in early 2024, accusing the party of running a 'rotten' system. The new parliament marks the first time since 1990 that Orbán - who evolved from pro-democracy campaigner to a Russia-friendly darling of the US Maga movement - won't hold a seat. Orbán, 62, has said he'll focus on reorganizing his nationalist movement instead.
Magyar, 45, has vowed to undo Orbán's stacked judiciary, media, and state apparatus, rebuild strained EU relations, and unlock billions in frozen funds. Symbolic changes were already evident: the EU flag returned to parliament after being removed in 2014, multiple anthems honored Hungary's EU membership and Roma minority, and lawyer Vilmos Kátai-Németh became the first visually impaired minister, taking on social and family affairs. Over a quarter of lawmakers are women, a record high.
Attendees like Erzsébet Medve, 68, a schoolteacher from Miskolc, expressed relief after years of underfunded education under Orbán. Marianna Szűcs, whose children moved abroad after she criticized Fidesz, said she hopes they can now return. However, Magyar faces a stagnating economy, a high budget deficit, and entrenched Orbán loyalists in media and academia. For now, though, the mood was celebratory, with crowds buying party swag and waving Hungarian flags.