Orbán conceded, with tears in his eyes, saying: “However it turned out, we will serve our country and the Hungarian nation from the opposition.”
A jubilant Magyar, theatrically clutching a Hungarian flag, stepped onto a stage on the banks of the River Danube to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as his supporters cheered and popped Champagne corks. “Together, we have liberated Hungary,” he said.
With such an emphatic margin of victory, Magyar will secure a supermajority in parliament that will allow him to change the constitution and unravel key pillars of Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” — demolishing the former prime minister’s tight control over the judiciary, state companies and the media.
Declaring that “the regime is over” and that Hungary will again be “a strong ally in the EU and NATO,” he called for a raft of top-level resignations to clean up up the state, including the presidents of the supreme court, the judicial council, the state audit office, the competition authority and the media authority.
Crucially, he also called for Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok, who has powers to veto legislation and send it back to parliament, to step down.
An enthusiastic crowd chanted “Europe, Europe,” as “We are the Champions” blasted through the streets nearby. “Hungarians said yes to Europe today, they said yes to a free Hungary,” Magyar declared from the stage by the river.