Viktor Orban

Viktor Mihaly Orban, born May 31, 1963, in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, is a lawyer and politician who co-founded the youth movement Fidesz in 1988, became its president in 1993, and transformed it from a liberal youth organization into a center-right political party, entering parliament in 1990 after the fall of communist rule. He served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1998 to 2002 and again from 2010 to 2026, a second tenure far longer and more consequential than his first; he became Hungary's longest-serving prime minister in November 2020. His government and Fidesz were variously described as Christian nationalist, illiberal and far-right, and faced international criticism over democratic backsliding, restrictions on judicial independence, media control and allegations of corruption involving public contracts and European Union funds. In April 2026 Orban lost a parliamentary election to Peter Magyar's Tisza Party in a landslide; he announced his intention to remain Fidesz leader while declining a seat in the new parliament, which subsequently imposed a constitutional two-term limit on the office of prime minister.