Péter Magyar sworn in as Hungary’s prime minister ending 16-year Orbán era

Jubilation in Budapest as new leader invites people to ‘step through gate of regime change’ The pro-European centre-right leader Péter Magyar has been sworn in as prime minister of Hungary, marking the official end to Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power. Saturday’s ceremony – during which Magyar had invited people to join him to “write Hungarian history” together and “step through the gate of regime change” – comes a month after his opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. The result sparked jubilation in Budapest and beyond, as Orbán and his populist, nationalist movement had long been held up by the global far right as an example to emulate. Speaking to the tens of thousands of supporters who had heeded his call to gather outside parliament, the new prime minister described the road to change as very long and often quite bumpy. But Hungarians could finally rejoice, he added. “Today, every freedom-loving person in the world wants to be a little Hungarian,” he said. “You have taught the country and the world that it is the most ordinary, flesh-and-blood people that can defeat the most vicious tyranny,” Magyar added to ro