Landslide election victory achieved by Tisza today

HUNGARY - In Brief 12 Apr 2026 by Istvan Racz

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With a record high 80% participation rate, Tisza reached a surprisingly clear-cut election victory today. About 84% of the domestic total vote having been counted, Tisza has 138 seats, against 54 for Fidesz and 7 for Mi Hazánk, in the new, three-party National Assembly. This represents a two-thirds constitutional majority, for which having 134 parliamentary mandates is the minimum requirement. Here is the official summary score sheet from the National Election Bureau:At quite an early stage of vote-counting, PM Orbán acknowledged Fidesz' election defeat, congratulating Tisza's leader on the phone, putting out a post on Facebook and also holding short public speech among his own people. Previously, his cabinet minister said that despite a substantial number of potential irregularities made by their opposition (of the kind Tisza also complained about from the opposite direction), the election process was orderly and appropriate. On the contrary, the government media was still following their morning orders in the evening hours, reporting about appalling cases of election fraud by Tisza, not really talking much about Mr. Orbán's acknowledgement of the election result. A word of warning: Mr. Orbán was voted out of power already once in 2002, when he held a conciliatory speech immediately after the election, but he changed style in two days, questioning the legitimacy of the then winning socialist-liberal coalition. The current situation is different in several ways, but the world cannot reasonably expect that Fidesz will give up power very easily.But anyway, the immediate result of today's vote is that Hungary will be most likely able to avoid a potential lengthy period of...