ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
We've been reporting all week from here in Hungary during the lead up to the historic election here, where voters today voted out the longest-serving leader in the EU, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and ushered in Orban's challenger, Peter Magyar. This election has far-reaching consequences beyond this central European country, which has a population about the size of New Jersey.
Orban had become a symbol of populism in the far right, and he was very close with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and many called him President Trump's closest ally in Europe. In fact, President Trump is such a big fan of Orban's that he sent Vice President JD Vance here to Budapest just days ago to try and give an electoral boost to Orban. But that did not work. The Tisza Party of conservative challenger, Peter Magyar, has secured two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, a super majority that will allow him to reverse the many changes to the constitution that Orban made over his years as prime minister.
I'm joined live here in our NPR pop-up studio in Budapest by Abel Bojar, research director at Europion, a polling app. Welcome, Abel.
ABEL BOJAR: Thank you so much for inviting me.
SCHMITZ: Well, thanks for being here. This is an historic day for Hungary. Viktor Orban is out of power after a record number of voters turned up at the polls. You've covered Hungarian elections for years. Have you seen anything like this?
BOJAR: Absolutely not. I mean, there are landslides, and there are landslides. You have to put everything in perspective. If you think about, like, the kind of political headwinds that this guy, this challenger, Peter Magyar, had to sail against, such as the funding asymmetry that his party had against the state apparatus of Orban, media access, the novelty of the party - I mean, he built up a whole machine at extreme levels of professionality in two years. And the list goes on. If you put all these into perspective, that landslide he achieved today - achieving two-thirds of the vote - is truly unprecedented.
SCHMITZ: And that's why there are tens of - maybe hundreds of thousands outside our hotel window here just cheering, going crazy outside. What was different about this election?
BOJAR: Everything was different about this election. It was different in the sense that finally, the opposition managed to achieve something that they've been striving for for cycles after cycles, but they never achieved to do so, which is unity. This was the first time that all - virtually all - 90% of opposition voters lined up behind one challenger, and they created a one-on-one race, and that changed everything.
SCHMITZ: So Peter Magyar is set to become the country's next prime minister. How has he promised to change Hungary?
BOJAR: He's promised sweeping changes in the constitutional framework, in issue priorities in Hungary's foreign relations and in the way the political culture operates. And he's promised everything, and he has a lot to deliver.
SCHMITZ: So Magyar's Tisza Party are on their way to a super majority in Parliament, which will allow them to quickly move forward with their agenda, change the constitution. We've seen this, though, before with Orban, and it turned out to be disastrous for Hungary's democracy. Is this too much power to give a young politician who, just two years ago, was part of the Orban regime?
BOJAR: There - that's a widespread risk perception that many critics or many cautious observers share - that, yes, this is what Peter Magyar's promised, that he will re-democratize the country. But is it really in his interest to do so? This is a question that will be asked more and more. I'm not in a position right now to give you a yes or no answer, but it's certainly a political risk that he will abuse this opportunity. At this point, we are hoping that he won't, and he will deliver on what he promised.
SCHMITZ: What do you think the future will hold for Viktor Orban?
BOJAR: His first move suggests that he tries to reposition himself as a kind of business as usual scenario, whereby he simply goes to a position, pretends that nothing special happened. It's a political turnover, like you observe in any democracy. And he will keep the political camp that he has been leading for 36 years together. Whether he will manage to do so depends on two things. First, his grip on the party itself - will he face new challenges in the party? And the electoral coalition that stands behind the party - will they desert him or will they still regard him as the natural leader of the right? We don't know the answer to these questions yet.
SCHMITZ: So many questions that still are outstanding here in Hungary. That is Hungarian pollster, Abel Bojar. Thanks so much, Abel.
BOJAR: Thank you so much.
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