Hungarians are casting ballots Sunday in what is widely seen as Europe’s most consequential election this year, a vote that could unseat the European Union’s longest-serving leader and one of its biggest antagonists.
It is a key moment for populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of President Trump, who has traveled a long road from his early days as a liberal, anti-Soviet firebrand to a Russian-friendly nationalist admired today by the global far-right.
Polls opened at 6 a.m. and were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Orbán and his top challenger, Péter Magyar, arrived at separate polling stations in Budapest at nearly the same time to cast their votes.
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Speaking to reporters outside, Orbán, 62, said the campaign had been “a great national moment on our side” and thanked activists and supporters for their work. “I’m here to win,” he said.
Independent watchdogs and European Union officials have accused Orbán’s government of launching a sustained assault on the country’s democratic institutions and rule of law since. In the 16 years since he took office in 2010, the country has descended to the rank of the most corrupt country in the European Union, according to the U.K.-based anti-corruption group Transparency International.
After casting his vote on Sunday, Magyar told reporters that the election was “a choice between East or West, propaganda or honest public discourse, corruption or clean public life.”
“I urge all Hungarian citizens to exercise their right to vote,” he said.
Casting his ballot in Budapest on Sunday, Marcell Mehringer, 21, said he was voting “primarily so that Hungary will finally be a so-called European country, and so that young people, and really everyone, will do their fundamental civic duty to unite this nation a bit and to break down these boundaries borne of hatred.”
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Orbán has been one of Mr. Trump’s closest global allies since the U.S. president was first elected in 2016. The relationship has deepened between the two men over the past decade. The partnership between the Trump administration and Orbán was on full display when Vice President JD Vance publicly campaigned alongside the Hungarian leader in Budapest last week.
Turnout after the first five hours of voting was 54.14%, according to the National Election Office. That is a record in Hungary’s post-communist history, with around 997,000 more voters having cast their ballot by 11 a.m. than during the 2022 elections.