On Sunday, the outgoing prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, announced that he would not be fulfilling his mandate in parliament as part of the opposition. On April 12, his party coalition, Fidesz-KDNP, lost by a landslide to Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party, after serving as prime minister for 16 years. Orbán also served as prime minister from 1998 to 2002.
Now, Orbán has other plans, posting a video to social media captioned: “Keep calm and continue. We will renew and protect our patriotic community.”
Keep calm and continue. We will renew and protect our patriotic community.
pic.twitter.com/swrswGKlAR
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) April 25, 2026
“I am now not needed in parliament but in the reorganization of the patriotic movement,” he says in the video. Orbán may remain as Fidesz president, and if the upcoming party congress votes for him to do so, he will accept this task.
Constitutional lawyer Zoltán Lomnici Jr. tells Magyar Nemzet that the move “is an extremely conscious, statesmanlike step that is in perfect harmony with the spirit of the Hungarian constitutional order, while opening up a strategic perspective for the long-term preservation and strengthening of the national community.”
“The mandate is not personal property, but the collective authority of the political community, which the leader can return to the community if it is more expedient in terms of the national interest,” Lomnici Jr. explains, with Orbán’s mandate now going to another representative on the Fidesz-KDNP list. This allows perhaps a younger party member to take up the role of representative in Hungary’s National Assembly, a faction that will now be led by Gergely Gulyás, the former head of the Prime Minister’s Office who is himself just 44 years old.
The expert added that this will allow Orbán to avoid the everyday battles of the minority faction, which would divert energy from strategic reconstruction of his party and movement. “Not a thirst for power, but taking responsibility after defeat, precisely the prudence that classical political philosophy – Aristotle, Machiavelli – considers to be the hallmark of a good leader,” he added regarding Orbán’s decision.
“Similarly, great conservative leaders have also recognized that after losing power, real strength lies in parallel structures and the re-creation of hegemony, not in the daily struggle in the horseshoe,” Lomnici Jr. told MN.
Orbán has clearly acknowledged the end of a political era and the need for renewal — for both Fidesz and the patriotic (national) movement. The lawyer indicates that Orbán’s task now will be to build “a broader, grassroots network that is able to resist the pressure of global liberalism and adapt to new challenges.” Referencing Gramsci’s “war of position,” he said this will involve the re-creation of not only parliamentary, but also cultural, intellectual and organizational hegemony.
Orbán himself has noted that renewal should not be led from above, but built from below: “New movements can be born, new faces, generational change, while the core, such as national sovereignty or the family, remains intact,” Lomnici Jr. said.
The lawyer predicts that Fidesz will now focus not on defeat but on building a new, stronger national side. “This decision shows Viktor Orbán’s statesmanship: he does not cling to a formal position, but serves the long-term interests of the nation,” he said, adding that Orbán will remain the defining figure of the Hungarian right.
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