Meloni pays tribute to close ally Orbán while Italy’s centre-left opposition celebrates Magyar win.
The landslide victory of Péter Magyar and his Tisza party over Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s general election on Sunday prompted sharply divided reactions across the Italian political spectrum.
Orbán, 62, conceded the “painful” defeat to pro-EU candidate Magyar, 45, who ousted the rightwing Hungarian prime minister after 16 years in power.
Meloni, who had been among Orbán’s most vocal European supporters, posted a statement on X congratulating Magyar on his “clear election victory.”
She also paid tribute to her departing ally, saying: “I thank my friend Viktor Orbán for the intense collaboration over the years,” adding that Italy and Hungary are “bound by a deep bond of friendship.”
Viktor Orbán and Giorgia Meloni. Photo credit: Marco Iacobucci Epp / Shutterstock.com.
The response from Italy’s opposition was considerably less diplomatic.
Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), speaking on La7, declared: “The time of sovereignisms and sovereignist right-wingers is over. Freedom, democracy and the desire for Europe have won. Orbán lost, and with him Trump lost — and Meloni and [Italy’s deputy premier Matteo] Salvini lost with their embarrassing videos supporting Orbán and his autocracy.”
Former prime minister Matteo Renzi described the result as evidence of a “reverse Midas touch” by Meloni, noting that the Italian prime minister had backed anti-European parties in Poland, Spain and Hungary – and seen her chosen side lose in all three elections.
Perhaps the most personal reaction came from MEP Ilaria Salis, the Italian activist and Green-Left (AVS) representative who was imprisoned in Hungary for 15 months after being arrested in Budapest in 2023.
Salis, who posted a photograph of herself on X holding a sign reading “Goodbye forever, Mr Orbán,” said the election result was “not a victory for the left, but at least a crushing defeat for the global far right and – hopefully – the end of a regime. Hungary and Europe will be better places without Orbán.”
Image: Péter Magyar. Photo credit: Istvan Csak / Shutterstock.com.
