Meet Péter Magyar, the man who replaced Viktor Orbán as Hungary’s prime minister

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has been one of President Trump’s favorites. During his 16 years in office, Orbán openly advocated for the re-election of Mr. political and administrative strategy.

In the run-up to Sunday’s election, Vice President JD Vance flew to Budapest and asked people to vote for the incumbent.

But in the end, none of this mattered. Orbán agreedending his reign of 16 years.

Mr. Trump has lost his biggest supporter in Europe. So who is this guy who is replacing him?

Meet Péter Magyar. Hungary’s new prime minister – whose name literally means “Hungarian” – is a young, well-dressed lawyer who campaigned on promises to stamp out corruption, tax the super-rich and unlock billions of euros frozen in the European Union.

He is more pro-EU and anti-Russia than his predecessor.

Although Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU leaders have accepted the election results, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has not. Russian state TV even claimed that “European hawks” and “Kyiv’s head of state” interfered in the election to overthrow Orbán.

He was once a fan of Orbán

Magyar grew to love Orbán as Hungary broke away from the Soviet Union in the 1990s. She reportedly had a picture of Orban – at the time widely known as an anti-communist freedom fighter – on her bedroom wall as a child. But after holding several roles as a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party, he resigned in 2024, expressing deep dissatisfaction with what he said was a culture of widespread corruption under Orbán’s leadership.

Relations between the two men further soured in February, when Magyar accused Fidesz of being “Russian-style” using a video recording of Magyar having consensual sex with his ex-girlfriend at a house party.

“Even in Europe, it has never happened that a ruling party tries to discredit, slander and eliminate its main political enemy by secretly recording their sexual acts using illegal means and threatening to make those recordings public,” he wrote on social media.

The tactics failed. A record 77.8% of eligible Hungarians went to the polls on Sunday – about 6 million in a country of 9 million.

The result was amazing. Magyar’s start-up party Tisza won a two-thirds majority in parliament, giving him the mandate to dismantle what he called the authoritarian system created by Orbán. He also promised to move Hungary towards closer relations with its EU partners.

But Magyar also has strong anti-immigration views: He has said in the past that the EU needs stronger border protection and that he opposes the redistribution of asylum seekers across Europe.

So while President Trump may consider Orbán to be close to him, there may be areas of common ground with his new ally.