By Lili Bayer and Krisztina Than
BUDAPEST, April 12 (Reuters) - Hungary's veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban conceded defeat on Sunday after a landslide election https://www.reuters.com/world/hungary/elections/ victory by the upstart opposition Tisza party, in a setback for his allies in Russia and U.S. President Donald Trump's White House.
Results based on 81.5% of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 137 seats for a crucial two-thirds majority in the 199-member parliament, defeating Orban's Fidesz party.
"The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear," Orban, 62, said at the Fidesz campaign offices. Some of his supporters who had gathered outside cried while watching him speak on TV screens.
"The election result is painful for us, but clear."
Election official estimated turnout at a record of 79% or more in an election that many Hungarians saw as a watershed moment for their country.
Tisza's Magyar, 45, had cast the vote as a choice between "East and West", warning voters that Orban and his confrontational stance towards Brussels would take the country further away from the European mainstream. Orban countered that Tisza would drag Hungary into an unwanted war with Russia, a charge Magyar denied.
"It's incredibly exciting," said 24-year-old Dorina Nyul, who attended the Tisza election night event. "It feels like this is our first and last chance in a really long time to actually change the system. And it's, I can't even describe the feeling."
The end of Orban's 16-year rule will have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond.
It is expected to bring an end to Hungary's adversarial role inside the EU, possibly opening the way for a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan to war-battered Ukraine that was blocked by Orban.
Defeat for Orban could also mean the eventual release of EU funds to Hungary that were suspended due to what Brussels said was Orban's erosion of democratic standards.
"Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the top EU executive, said after partial results were released.
Orban's exit would also deprive Russian President Vladimir Putin of his main ally in the EU and send shockwaves through Western right-wing circles, including the White House.
DECLINE OF 'ILLIBERAL DEMOCRACY'
In Hungary, a Tisza victory could open the way for reforms that the party says would combat corruption and restore the independence of the judiciary and other institutions.
Orban, a eurosceptic, carved out a model of an "illiberal democracy" seen as a blueprint for governing by Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement and its admirers in Europe.
But many Hungarians have grown increasingly weary https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/factbox-what-has-changed-hungary-during-orbans-12-year-rule-2022-03-31/ of him, after three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs as well as reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth.
Orban has won public endorsements from the Trump administration - culminating in a visit to Budapest by Vice President JD Vance last week - as well as from the Kremlin and far-right leaders in Europe.
But his campaign has been shaken by media reports alleging his government colluded with Moscow on diplomatic and political matters.
Orban, who denies any wrongdoing, says his goal is to protect Hungary's national identity and traditional Christian values within the EU and its security in a dangerous world.
(Additional reporting by Krisztina Than, Anita Komuves, Lili Bayer, Thomas Holdstock, Judith Langowski, writing by Justyna Pawlak; Editing by Alexander Smith, Gareth Jones and Edmund Klamann)
