Viktor Orbán won't be taking up his seat in Parliament

Viktor Orbán will not be taking his seat in the new parliament, the outgoing Hungarian prime minister announced on Saturday. Orbán said that Fidesz's executive committee meeting had just concluded, and "discussions are in full swing about the renewal of the national side and our parliamentary group." According to the outgoing prime minister, Fidesz's parliamentary group will be formed on Monday, following a radical overhaul, and its leader will be Gergely Gulyás. He then added:

“The seat I won as the lead candidate on the Fidesz–KDNP list is, in fact, a parliamentary seat for Fidesz, which is why I have decided to give it up. Right now I will not be needed in Parliament, but in the reorganisation of the national camp. "

He also announced that the party will be holding a general assembly next week, and the party's congress, originally scheduled for the fall, has been moved up to June. Orbán said that if the congress chooses to grant him their votes of confidence, he is ready to continue in his role.

This is the second time Viktor Orbán has spoken publicly since Fidesz’s election defeat. He first evaluated the situation four days after April 12 at the pro-Fidesz channel, Patrióta, promising a complete redesign and restructuring of his party. “Those who have now entered parliament are not the people we will need there,” he announced then, adding that the Fidesz–KDNP candidates who had won seats would have been able to work effectively in parliament had they won, but the situation was now different; “we will need different kinds of people, different kinds of skills, and different kinds of representatives in opposition”.

With the exception of a brief interruption, Viktor Orbán has led Fidesz for nearly 30 years and has served as the party's president without interruption since 2003. His first day in parliament was on May 2, 1990, at the inaugural session of the new, freely elected parliament. He was one of the few members of parliament to have spent 36 years in the chamber without interruption. Orbán served as Hungary’s prime minister for five terms, from 1998 to 2002 and then from 2010 to 2026. He was the longest-serving head of government in the European Union, as well as the longest-serving Hungarian head of government ever.

Less than a year ago, on the channel Ultrahang, when asked about whether he would remain in parliament if he ended up in opposition, he said he would like to retire as a member of parliament:

“There’s no question that I will one day be an opposition politician [...] And since I’ve decided not to go into business or academia, but to stay in politics and public life, because that’s my profession, as a member of parliament, I’d like to continue serving in the next term as long as the people elect me and my party is willing to nominate me,” he said in July 2025.

He also spoke about having no desire to work in the business world in 2021. At that time, he said he lives off his salary, and has no intention of joining the ranks of the wealthy—no, thanks—he said, adding that he plans to remain in parliament for a while longer:

“You won’t be able to get rid of me even if your plans do come to fruition, because I will stay on as a member of parliament, living off my salary, and I’ll be a load on your backs for a long time to come. Don’t get your hopes up. You can count on my cooperation for the next 20 years too".

It was shortly before Orbán’s announcement on Saturday that it was revealed that outgoing deputy prime minister Zsolt Semjén, who was second on the Fidesz list, also wouldn’t be taking up his seat in parliament. Two other experienced Christian Democrat politicians—János Latorcai, deputy speaker of parliament, and state secretary Miklós Soltész—have made the same decision as the chairman of Fidesz’s longtime coalition partner Christian Democratic Party (KDNP). Semjén had resigned from his position as chairman of the party a day earlier, but KDNP’s executive committee did not accept his resignation.

In the April 12 election, 52 Fidesz representatives were elected to parliament, 42 of whom came from the party list and 10 from individual constituencies. Those elected from the party list may resign their seats at any time with one restriction: only candidates from the 279-member list announced in early March may be sent to parliament in their place, although the order in which they appear on the list no longer matters in this case.