Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is stepping down after his party’s landslide election defeat earlier this month, said on Saturday that he is giving up his seat in Hungary’s parliament but intends to remain leader of the Fidesz party. In a video posted on Facebook, Orbán said the decision followed a Fidesz meeting during which party officials agreed to carry out a major restructuring of the party’s parliamentary grouping after the heavy election loss, which ended Orbán’s 16-year rule. Orbán said he would seek reelection as party leader in a vote scheduled for June.
In the April 12 parliamentary election, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party scored a supermajority, winning 141 seats out of 199 in the Hungarian national assembly, while Orbán’s Fidesz party came in a distant second with just 52 seats. Orbán said the Fidesz parliamentary grouping will be led by Gergely Gulyás, who has been serving as overseer of the Prime Minister’s Office. Orbán has held a seat in the parliament since 1990, and has led Fidesz throughout that period.
He has served as Hungary’s prime minister since 2010. Magyar is expected to be installed as prime minister by parliament in early May. His party’s supermajority in the parliament could facilitate the swift approval of democratic reforms necessary to unlock €17 billion of EU funds that were frozen over rule-of-law shortcomings under Orbán’s tenure.