Hungary's Viktor Orban steps down from parliament after a landslide defeat, vows to rebuild

Source: NBC News/AP

April 26, 2026, 2:14 AM EDT


BUDAPEST, Hungary — Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will not take his seat in parliament following a landslide election loss this month, and will instead focus on rebuilding his nationalist-populist political community, he announced Saturday in a video on social media.

Hungary's April 12 election brought an end to Orbán's 16 years in power when voters cast their ballots overwhelmingly for a center-right challenger who promised to crack down on endemic corruption and restore Hungary's democratic institutions that had been eroded under Orbán.

That challenger, the Tisza party led by Hungary's incoming Prime Minister Péter Magyar, won a two-thirds majority in parliament that will allow it to undo many of Orbán's policies. Since the election, the long-serving prime minister's future role in Hungarian political life, and whether he will retain a role in government, has been uncertain.

But in a video posted to Facebook, Orbán said his party's caucus in parliament would be "radically transformed" following the election loss, and that he would not take his seat. "Our task now is not in parliament," Orbán said, but in the "reorganization" of his political camp that he calls the "national side."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/hungary/hungarys-viktor-orban-steps-parliament-landslide-defeat-vows-rebuild-rcna342037