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Who would have thought that the authoritarian Viktor Orban regime, which ruled Hungary with an iron fist for 16 years since 2010, would bite the dust through a democratic process? In April, the people of Hungary made what was once believed to be improbable possible.

This unthinkable outcome became reality only because some leading Hungarian opposition parties were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice: for the sake of restoring democracy, they stepped aside from the electoral contest and backed the strongest political party in Opposition to Orban so that the ruling Fidesz could not take advantage of a split in votes.

Popular opinion polls in the country were unanimous in their verdict in the months preceding the general election: the Tisza Party, led by Peter Magyar, was the unquestioned front-runner in the Opposition to take on the entrenched Orban, who was seeking a fifth consecutive term as prime minister, and a sixth including his term from 1998 to 2002).

Among the main opposition parties that withdrew from the contest was Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) which was in power for one term between 1994-1998 and then for two more terms between 2002 and 2010. As a matter of fact, in 2004, MSZP was instrumental in leading Hungary into the European Union.

After it lost power to Orban’s Fidesz in 2010, MSZP became the largest opposition party in Parliament, a position it held after the subsequent election in 2014 as well. But its base has steadily declined as Orban consolidated his position in the power structure with a two-thirds supermajority in Parliament.

What Hungary’s parties did

The MSZP surprised one and all when it took a bold and historic call in 2026. It said: “The only way to beat an electoral system that amounted to ‘legalised fraud’ was to unite behind the strongest opposition candidate regardless of party”. Since, by all reckoning, Tisza’s Magyar was the most popular challenger to Orban, it backed him unequivocally with the larger goal of overthrowing the corrupt and authoritarian regime.

Also read: Orban Is Not Viktorius, and the Ramifications Are Felt Globally

For the record, the MSZP did not field any candidate in the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election. Could there be any greater sacrifice on the part of an established political party than to forgo contesting the national election to consolidate votes in favour of the........

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