Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said he will not take his seat in parliament following his party’s landslide defeat in this month’s election but wants to stay on as Fidesz leader to lead a “renewal” process.
The most senior figure in Hungarian politics since the fall of Communism in 1989, Orban has sat in the Hungarian parliament for 36 uninterrupted years, serving as prime minister for the past sixteen.
“I am not needed in the parliament now but in the reorganization of the patriotic side,” said Orban, who held the No. 1 position on the list of candidates of his Fidesz party. He added that he will seek re-election as party leader at its June convention.
Fidesz’s defeat was hailed by many liberals and progressives as evidence that the right-wing wave that has swept the US and much of Europe had peaked.
Backed by US President Donald Trump, Orban was the only EU leader still close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and used his veto to delay an EU loan to Ukraine.
Hungary’s Orban admits defeat in the election
Hungary’s Orban admits defeat in the election
Orban has previously retreated to re-emerge as a stronger figure. When his previous one-term government failed in 2002, he left the party leadership to rally his conservative base in a new coalition, returning to government eight years later.
