At 2:38PM Central European Time on Saturday, Peter Magyar was sworn in as the 8th Prime Minister of Hungary after the Hungarian National Assembly officially elected Magyar Prime Minister with 140 votes in favor, 54 against, and 1 abstention.
Magyar then took his oath of office and was congratulated by President Tamás Sulyok alongside leaders of Hungary’s political parties that will have representation in the country’s parliament.
Vice chair of the Tisza Party Ágnes Forsthoffer was elected parliamentary speaker.
In his inaugural speech, the new Prime Minister called on President Tamás Sulyok and all leaders of government institutions who served former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party to resign, according to Hungarian news outlet 24.hu.
Magyar said that the people of Hungary had given his Tisza Party a clear mandate and the power to begin a new chapter in the country’s history. “A mandate not only to change the government, but to change the system as well. To start again.”
In his inaugural speech, Magyar vowed that he will work for the people of Hungary ‘with faith, willpower, and patriotism;’ and that he would follow in the footsteps of his historic predecessors such as Lajos Batthyány, Imre Nagy, or József Antall.
Magyar, a Fidesz loyalist from 2002-2024, was previously married to Justice Minister and former Fidesz MP Judit Varga. He gained fame in 2024 after criticizing his former party in an interview with anti-Fidesz media outlet Partizan for alleged abuses of power committed while in office and refusing to take responsibility.
Magyar also criticized then-Hungarian President Katalin Novak, who resigned in disgrace for pardoning the former deputy director of a Budapest-area orphanage who was serving a prison sentence for covering up child sexual abuse.
In his inaugural speech, PM Magyar vowed that he will work for his nation ‘with faith, willpower, and patriotism;’ and stated that he wishes to follow in the footsteps of his historic predecessors such as Lajos Batthyány, Imre Nagy, or József Antall. ‘Honour, bravery, wisdom: as Prime Minister, I will strive to follow their examples, to learn from them in these virtues, with humility,’ he added.
He also stated that “I am not here because I am better than anyone in this country, but because millions of Hungarians have decided that they want change”.
According to the Associated Press:
Magyar earlier called on Hungarians to attend an all-day “regime-change” celebration on Kossuth Square outside Parliament to mark his inauguration and the end of the Orbán era. Thousands had already gathered in the square as the new representatives were sworn in, many waving Hungarian and E.U. flags and wearing Tisza T-shirts.
As the crowd watched the proceedings inside Parliament on large screens, cheers erupted whenever Magyar appeared. The new prime minister was set to address the crowd outside after the completion of Parliament’s inaugural session.
This session of the Hungarian Parliament is the most right-wing in the country’s modern history, with the pro-European Union and right-of-center Tisza Party in power with 141 members. Both the conservative populist Fidesz (including its subsidiary party Kereszteny Demokrata Neppart) and Mi Hazank Mozgalom will be in opposition.
The Demokratikus Koalíció and Magyar Ket Kutya Part parties failed to qualify after failing to reach the minimum percentage of the popular vote required to enter the National Assembly. Other opposition parties including Jobbik and the Hungarian Socialist Party declined to field candidates for the 2026 parliamentary election due to their lack of popularity.
Orban resigned from the National Assembly on Friday, ending a 36-year political career in the wake of his party’s landslide defeat. Fidesz leadership elections, which will determine whether Orban will remain his party’s leader, will take place in June.
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