Could Viktor Orbán Finally Be Ousted?

Hungary’s parliamentary elections on April 12 could be monumental not only for the European Union but for the world. Since 2010, strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ruled Hungary as a self-professed “illiberal state,” where freedom of the press, freedom of religion and electoral integrity have all been eroded. After 16 years of this, upstart and former insider Péter Magyar is leading the new Tisza Party—and is also leading the polls.

The world is watching this election. Politico called Hungary’s vote “the EU’s most important election of 2026.” WarFronts called it a “pan-European concern.”

Will this upcoming election finally rid Europe of its Budapest boogeyman? If so, would his replacement be any better?

Russian Collusion

For years, Orbán has cultivated close relations with Russia. He has vetoed Russian sanctions and Ukrainian aid packages within the European Union. He has continued to rely on Russian energy and made it easier for Russians to visit Hungary as tourists. He claims Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are trying to suck Hungary into an active war against Russia.

Hungary’s membership in both the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has made Orbán useful to Russian President Vladimir Putin to handicap these institutions’ attempts to sanction Russia. It appears Orbán is so useful that Putin may have been planning a serious stunt to keep him in power.

Citing a “European intelligence service,” a March 21 Washington Post report claimed agents of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service were seriously considering “the staging of an assassination attempt on Viktor Orbán” to “shift the perception of the campaign out of the rational realm of socioeconomic questions into an emotional one, where the key themes will become state security and the stability and defense of the political system.”

It could be true. It could also be nonsense. EU intelligence services fabricated or exaggerated Russian interference in Romania’s election when a candidate they disliked won. Are they using similar tactics to tilt the election away from Orbán?

The Washington Post also alleged, citing a “European security official,” that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has been making regular phone calls to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during EU meeting breaks with “live reports on what’s been discussed.” The official said the calls meant “every single EU meeting for years has basically had Moscow behind the table.” The Hungarian government previously denied the claim, but Szijjártó confirmed on March 24 that these allegations are correct.

“We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated in response to the report. “That’s one reason why I take the floor only when strictly necessary and say just as much as necessary.” Tusk is a former European Council president, the ultimate EU insider.

Many Hungarians support Russia over Ukraine. At least, they don’t want to be dragged into the conflict because of Western pressure. But because of antics like this, the EU is holding back financial grants. Hungary’s weak economy is stagnating as a result.

Voters gave Orbán power in 2010 as a backlash against corrupt and inept socialist governments. This time around, Orbán and his Fidesz party play the role of the out-of-touch regime. Many Hungarians want a fresh face to clean up Budapest and see one in Péter Magyar. But what could people expect from him as prime minister?

Who Is Péter Magyar?

Magyar (whose last name literally means “Hungarian”) was born in 1981 in Budapest, when Hungary was still under Communist rule. At the time, Orbán was about to make his name as a young anti-Communist activist willing to stand up to the brutal regime. In the early 2000s, Magyar studied law at Budapest’s Pázmány Péter Catholic University. He briefly studied in Berlin under the EU’s Erasmus program. His great uncle, Ferenc Mádl, was Hungary’s ceremonial president from 2000 to 2005. From 2006 to 2023, he was married to Judit Varga, Orbán’s former justice minister.

Until 2024, he was a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party. He first began political work in Brussels, working for the Hungarian government’s EU office. “Many [old acquaintances] recalled how important patriotism and Christianity were for Magyar” in his early political life, according to a 2025 article from the Hungarian medium Telex. The article continued: “According to those who knew him, Magyar was so dogmatic about his world view that he could easily get into a row with anyone who disagreed with him 100 percent.” One acquaintance claimed that “at parties, you could tell where Magyar was based on where there was an argument going on.”

After Magyar and Varga divorced, his influence within Fidesz and the government waned. Even before that, according to “government sources” speaking with Telex, Fidesz was concerned with Magyar being “overly self-motivated and not a team player.” Magyar was subsequently passed up for promotions.

He publicly broke with the government when a scandal implicated President Katalin Novák. From there, he and his Tisza party catapulted to prominence in the 2024 European parliamentary elections, when Tisza won second place to Fidesz.

Since 2010, most of Orbán’s main challengers have come from the political left. Magyar is an anomaly as a former insider who claims to stand with some of Fidesz’s core programs. He supports hard-line immigration rules against Muslim refugees. Like Orbán, he rails against foreign influence from figures like financier and international manipulator George Soros. He stays neutral about Orbán’s stance against homosexual culture.

He differs from Orbán in his views on Europe and Russia. Magyar is pro-European and claims he would restore Hungary’s reputation among the EU and nato. He has rejected Orbán’s pivots toward Russia and China, and he has vehemently attacked Fidesz’s extensive corruption and grifting.

In 2025, Magyar said that Orbán’s system “cannot be reformed, cannot be fixed, cannot be improved. This system can only be replaced, and that is what we will do.”

In short, he sounds like everything the EU dreams of: a young leader who made his name in Brussels, who promises to bring Brussels back into Budapest, and who appeals to the generally conservative Hungarian voter base enough to have a shot at unseating Hungary’s “king.”

But the adage to “be careful what you wish for” remains. Magyar’s reputation suggests he is more interested in fulfilling personal ambitions. Fidesz’s corruption serves as a convenient excuse for such.

His David-and-Goliath-style crusade against a dictatorial regime is reminiscent of Orbán’s rise to power against the Communist government. Could Magyar’s ambitions lead to the same place Orbán’s ambitions took him?

Reviving Hungary’s Place in Europe

The Trumpet has watched Hungary’s dictatorial transformation for years. Aside from Hungary being the starkest example of European democratic backsliding, the Bible predicts Europe will reject liberal democracy and turn into a dictatorial superpower that will shock the world. Revelation 17 speaks of a 10-nation composite “beast,” or empire, (see Daniel 7 and Revelation 13) emerging from the old territory of the Roman Empire and wreaking havoc on the world before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (verses 12-14). Our free booklet Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast?, by Herbert W. Armstrong, elaborates. Mr. Armstrong expected five of these countries to come from Western Europe and five from Eastern Europe.

Hungary was important in earlier resurrections of this Roman “beast.” It was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty and was an important ally of Nazi Germany. Orbán has worked to revive this culture in Hungary, including through courting the Vatican. He has transformed the government to resemble what it was in World War ii. He has prioritized close relations with Russia, something Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry expects at least to a limited degree from this coming beast.

These factors make Hungary a likely member of this coming superpower. “Is the acceptance of Orbán’s dictatorship in the EU a sign that the time has come for Europe’s 10 kings to emerge?” Mr. Flurry asked in a 2020 article. “It is almost certain that Hungary will be part of the coming 10-nation European superpower.”

Orbán has done much to condition Hungarians and Europeans to traditional, strongman leadership. His rule reflects the trend the Trumpet has been watching. But that doesn’t mean Orbán himself will be one of those 10 kings. There are a handful of potential strikes against him.

For one, Orbán is not a team player. He supports Europe’s renewal but as a loose affiliation of nation-states. Revelation 17:13 says the 10 kings will “give their power and strength” unto a strong, supranational, central government. Orbán is vehemently anti-superstate.

Other prophecies show Germany will be the lead player in this bloc. Orbán has pushed against German dominion. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel encouraged Europe to open its borders to Syrian refugees a decade ago, Orbán kept Hungary’s borders shut.

These factors led Mr. Flurry to tell our Editorial team in 2024 that he didn’t believe Orbán would be part of the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Most other European governments want him gone; they hope Magyar will evict Orbán from power and normalize Hungary within the rest of Europe.

Magyar isn’t much different from Orbán. He holds the same European conservative world view, and he is ambitious. But unlike Orbán, he wants to share power with the rest of the EU. He has the EU’s apparent blessing. He could be one of Europe’s 10 kings.

The election this Sunday seems set to be a close race. We don’t know exactly what will happen, but Hungary cannot continue to defy Germany for much longer.