Viktor Orbán

Viktor Mihály Orbán (born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who served as the prime minister of Hungary from 1998 to 2002, and 2010 to 2026. He has also been the president of Fidesz, which has been variously characterised as a Christian nationalist, illiberal, and far-right political party. He has served as its president since 2003, and previously from 1993 to 2000. Orbán was first elected to the National Assembly in 1990 and led Fidesz's parliamentary group until 1993. During his first term as prime minister and head of the conservative coalition government from 1998 to 2002, inflation and the fiscal deficit shrank, and Hungary joined NATO. After losing re-election, Orbán led the opposition party from 2002 to 2010. He was re-elected as prime minister in 2010, and then in 2014, 2018, and 2022, winning supermajorities in all four elections. On 29 November 2020, he became the country's longest-serving prime minister. Starting from its return in 2010, Orbán's government enacted a series of constitutional and institutional changes, including the 2013 amendments to the Constitution of Hungary, reforms to the judiciary affecting the administration of courts, and the creation of regulatory bodies overseeing media. Organizations such as the European Commission and Freedom House have described these developments as weakening judicial independence and media pluralism, and enabling democratic backsliding. His government has also faced allegations of corruption involving the allocation of public contracts and EU funds. In March 2019, Fidesz was suspended from the European Union's Christian Democratic party, the European People's Party (EPP). In March 2021, Fidesz left the EPP over a dispute over new rule-of-law language in the latter's bylaws. Orbán lost the 2026 parliamentary election, which saw record turnout, to Péter Magyar's Tisza Party in a landslide. Orbán subsequently announced that he would both remain as leader of Fidesz and refuse to take his seat in the new parliament. In foreign and social policy, Orbán has opposed aspects of European Union migration and asylum policy, and supported domestic legislation restricting LGBTQ rights in Hungary, including same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption and LGBTQ-inclusive education. While advocating Christian nationalism and describing his political model as an "illiberal state", he has promoted soft Euroscepticism, opposition to liberal democracy, and closer economic and political ties with countries including China, Russia, and Turkey. His government has faced allegations of enriching elites associated with the administration, and has been characterized as a kleptocracy. Analysts and institutions have variously characterized Hungary under his leadership as a hybrid regime, dominant-party system, or mafia state.