Hungary’s Orbán loses to Magyar, ending rule of a key Netanyahu ally in Europe

Peter Magyar has ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year tenure as Hungary’s prime minister, sending the closest ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu packing after a decisive vote on Sunday. 

Israel didn’t play a prominent role in the election, which centred on issues related to democracy, Hungary’s relationships to Europe and Russia, and corruption. 

It is also seen as unlikely that Magyar will substantially alter Hungary’s relationship with Israel, even as many of the European countries with which he wants ties have softened or rescinded their own support. He is a conservative who was a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party for two decades, and has said little to indicate any particular stances on Israel or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

For some Jewish voters, Magyar’s silence was a turnoff, even as his new Tisza party rocketed higher in the polls. 

“I don’t hear anything from them about Jews, about Israel, about immigration, education or healthcare, or what they will do when they come to power,” Rabbi Joseph Frolich, who helms the historic Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ahead of the election. He said he would vote for a liberal party that wasn’t projected to win many seats in Parliament. 

Other Jewish voters said they were torn because of Orbán’s support for Israel and their perception that Jews in Hungary are safer than their counterparts in the rest of Europe. 

Even as he has not been a critic of Israel, Magyar is unlikely to be as forceful an ally of Netanyahu as Orbán has been. Last year, Orbán invited Netanyahu to Budapest in part to signal defiance against the International Criminal Court – which had recently issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister – as part of his broad campaign against the European Union and international institutions. 

Orbán’s defeat is also a setback for the global right, in which both Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump are prominent figures. Many on the left and in the centre see Hungarian voters’ repudiation of Orbán’s moves to weaken Hungary’s judiciary, freedom of the press, and nonprofit sector, as well as demonise immigrants and LGBTQ people, as a promising sign that such ambitions could be curbed in their own countries. 

Netanyahu didn’t immediately comment publicly on the election results, though Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, who has been a big booster of Orbán, tweeted that the election results proved that Orbán wasn’t a dictator, as some of his critics have charged. 

The leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, who is hoping to achieve similar results in Israel’s elections later this year, weighed in quickly. “Congratulations to @magyarpeterMP and the Tisza Party on their victory in the Hungarian elections!” he tweeted. “I hope that under your leadership, the relations between Israel and Hungary will continue to deepen and strengthen. Best of luck!”