Live. Record turnout as close of polls nears in Hungary’s most consequential election in decades

By 3:00 pm local time, just over 66% of eligible voters had cast their votes, making it a record high and a 10% increase on the last election four years ago.

Incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expressed his happiness at the high turnout after casting his vote in Budapest. “I came to win,” he said, and urged everyone to vote.

After casting his vote, opposition leader Péter Magyar said that he was certain that his Tisza party would win and that he believed there would be a change at the top of Hungarian politics.

Opposition leader Péter Magyar released a statement on Sunday denying allegations that his Tisza Party was planning violence in the event of an election defeat.

The warnings came after government spokesman Zoltán Kovács noted that Tisza’s election-night event was being held close to parliament and the prime minister’s office, suggesting that “a short walk is all it takes to move a crowd from ‘watching results’ to ‘taking action’.”

Several pro-government commentators also cautioned that Fidesz’s victory could trigger unrest.

Magyar dismissed the claims outright. “It is a common Fidesz scare story and lie that anyone is preparing for violent protests or building occupations after the vote,” he said.

“We are living in the final hours of Orbán’s rule: let’s bid them farewell calmly and with dignity, and tomorrow let’s start reuniting the nation” Péter Magyar said in a press release.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán urged his supporters to vote on Sunday, warning that the country’s peace and security could depend on a single ballot.

“It’s a decision we cannot undo. We have to defend Hungary!” Orbán wrote in a social media post published in the afternoon.

Throughout the campaign, Orbán had accused the opposition Tisza Party of seeking to drag Hungary into war and of acting in foreign interests, allegations the party and its leader, Péter Magyar, have firmly rejected.

In just two years, Péter Magyar has grown from a virtually unknown figure in Hungarian politics to becoming the biggest threat to the Fidesz Party – his former political home – and its 16-year uninterrupted stretch in government.

Magyar burst into prominence in 2024 as the government faced a presidential pardon scandal that involved a child abuser’s accomplice.

Prior to that, he was raised in a conservative family and was anything but an outsider when it came to the politics of of Fidesz.

You can check out Zoltan Siposhegyi’s profile of the man who could be Hungary’s next PM below.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has governed Hungary for nearly 16 years, reshaping its institutions, challenging EU norms and positioning himself as the leading voice of nationalist conservatism on the continent.

His trajectory from liberal student activist to self-described champion of “illiberal democracy,” is one of the most striking — and polarising — political reinventions in post-communist central and eastern Europe.

Gábor Tanács has this profile of the man who could be Hungary’s outgoing PM.