{"id":7340,"date":"2026-04-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=7340"},"modified":"2026-04-19T22:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:44:41","slug":"viktor-orban-faces-landslide-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/inter\/2026\/04\/20\/viktor-orban-faces-landslide-defeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Viktor Orb\u00e1n faces landslide defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a controversial 16 years as prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orb\u00e1n conceded defeat on April 13th 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n was first elected to the Hungarian government in 1998 as prime minister of a coalition government and leader of Fidesz. In 1999 he oversaw Hungary’s entry into the North Atlantic treaty. In 2002 Orb\u00e1n and the Fidesz were defeated in the general election but Orb\u00e1n remained popular.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He and Fidesz lost again in 2006 to the Hungary socialist party but was appointed in 2010 prime minister again after the devastation of the 2008 financial crash and when it was discovered that the socialist party had lied about the state of Hungary\u2019s economy to garner votes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2010 Orb\u00e1n\u2019s leadership has been draped in controversy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The media<\/b><\/p>\n

Since 2011 Fidesz has had the power to fine journalists and withdraw media licenses with very little opposition. Media and broadcasts in Hungary were bought up by oligarchs and used to advertise party policy and opinion openly. In 2025 Orb\u00e1n attempted to pass a law that would investigate journalists and independent researchers under suspicion of being \u201cforeign influenced.\u201d This sparked international outcry as an infringement on the freedom of the press.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anti- LGBTQ+<\/b><\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n has implemented several legislation affecting the LGBTQ+ community in Hungary over the years. In 2020 he banned same sex couples from adopting children, in the same year he abolished the ability for transgender people to change their gender legally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>In 2021 the act on protection of children was passed – this outlawed conversations and content about the LGBTQ+ community being shared with minors. This gained strong opposition both from advocates and politicians, <\/span>and the European Commissioners for Justice sent an open letter to the Hungarian justice minister, raising concerns over the potential breach of the EU\u2019s Charter of Fundamental Rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally in 2025, Orban’s government banned LGBTQ+ pride events in Hungary. The ban was justified under the child protection act and pride events were considered\u00a0 a promotion of LGBTQ+\u00a0 material, deemed as \u201charmful to children\u201d. This ban was met with a widespread demonstration that saw 200,000 people take to the country’s capital to protest the ban. An attendee, Luca, told The<\/em><\/span>\u00a0BBC, <\/span><\/i>“We have a law that bans people who are different from others to gather. This is why we are here. Because it’s hurting our rights. That’s why we came.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Anti-immigration\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In a national statement Orban said:<\/span> “We do not want to see a significant minority among ourselves that has different cultural characteristics and backgrounds. <\/span>We would like to keep Hungary as Hungary,<\/span>”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This came in response to the Brussels Immigration Act 2025, which proposed a unified response to immigration in Europe and encouraged countries to help asylum seekers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prime minister elect Peter Mahyar pledges to form a stronger relationship with the EU and says he will reform state institutions as the people voted<\/span> \u201cnot just for change of government, but of regime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a controversial 16 years as prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orb\u00e1n conceded defeat on April 13th 2026.\u00a0 Orb\u00e1n was first elected to the Hungarian government in 1998 as prime minister of a coalition government and leader of Fidesz. In 1999 he oversaw Hungary’s entry into the North Atlantic treaty. In 2002 Orb\u00e1n and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":7341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[627,1069,1861,1157,708,1179,1097,1860],"wf_post_folders":[247],"class_list":{"0":"post-7340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-inter","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-politics","11":"tag-hungary","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-lgbtq","15":"tag-viktor-orban"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Hannah Fortune","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/hannah_0525\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9298443437_66c2a6af57_o-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["International<\/a>"],"unlinked":["International<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["elections<\/a>","Europe<\/a>","European politics<\/a>","Hungary<\/a>","immigration<\/a>","international<\/a>","lgbtq<\/a>","Viktor orban<\/a>"],"unlinked":["elections<\/span>","Europe<\/span>","European politics<\/span>","Hungary<\/span>","immigration<\/span>","international<\/span>","lgbtq<\/span>","Viktor orban<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 months ago","modified":"Updated 5 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 20 April 2026","modified":"Updated on 19 April 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 20 April 2026 08:00","modified":"Updated on 19 April 2026 22:44"},"featured_img_caption":"Viktor Orban. Photograph: European People Part via Flickr ","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7342,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7340\/revisions\/7342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7340"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}