Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s far-right authoritarian prime minister, has been ousted by the opposition leader in a landslide victory.

Orbán and his party, Fidesz, won only 55 of the 199 seats in the Hungarian parliament, while his opponent, Péter Magyar, and his party, Tisza, won 138. Orbán has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights and has been repeatedly lauded by President Donald Trump, with Vice President JD Vance traveling to Hungary to support him last week.

However, there are still concerns for LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary moving forward. “We still have a lot to do,” said LGBTQ+ rights activist Geza Buzas-Habel ahead of the election. While he noted that if Orbán lost, “returning to legal conditions before Orbán’s tenure would be an improvement.” But he said that “[Magyar] is unwilling to communicate on LGBTQ rights, so we must pressure them.”

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Under Orbán, LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary have been under fierce attack. In June 2021, Hungary passed an “anti-pedophilia” law that actually targeted limiting the public discussion of LGBTQ+ lives and identities, banning media and schools from discussing LGBTQ+ identities and requiring sex education workers to register with the government to prevent them from promoting “representation of specific sexual orientations.” At the time, it was compared to Russia’s ban on “homosexual propaganda,” and was widely condemned by the European Parliament.

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During Orbán’s tenure, Hungary also passed legislation to limit adoption to only married heterosexual couples, prevented correcting gender markers on personal documents for trans people, denying them gender recognition, and banned Pride marches. The final of those laws has been heavily protested, but is being enforced, with multiple people facing trial for organizing marches anyway.

Orbán has claimed that these anti-LGBTQ+ policies are rooted in “Christian values” and protecting children, similar to how the right in the U.S. defends restrictive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Orban’s Fidesz party amended the constitutional right of assembly to enable their ban of Pride marches, claiming that “the recent changes establish that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development, as defined above, take precedence over all other rights, including the right to peacefully assemble, except the right to life.”

In fact, if all of those laws and justifications sound similar to the work of the Heritage Foundation in the United States, it’s perhaps noteworthy that the Heritage Foundation praised Orbán as far back as 2018, explaining “Why the U.S. Must Befriend Hungary’s Populist Leader.” That relationship appears to have been mutual, with Orbán visiting the U.S. in 2024, snubbing President Joe Biden but meeting with Trump and the Heritage Foundation.

Trump is a fan of Orbán, saying in 2024, “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter, or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic, he’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it. Right? He’s the boss. No, he’s a great leader.” In turn, Orbán credited Trump’s 2024 victory with enabling him to crack down on LGBTQ+ people.

Hungary’s next prime minister might not be pro-LGBTQ+ rights, but many believe he will be an improvement over Orbán. Until 2024, Magyar was part of Orbán Fidesz party and ran in 2026 as a center-right politician. He and the Tisza party have campaigned on an anti-corruption, pro-democracy platform, focusing on the economy and working with the EU. While he has said that he wants to have a good relationship with the United States, he has declined to call Trump since his victory and has demonstrated his support for Ukraine.

While Magyar has been vocal on many issues, he has not made any clear statements about LGBTQ+ rights or overturning the harmful legislation enacted under Orbán. Instead, when questioned about Orbán’s Pride ban or other LGBTQ+ issues, Magyar dismissed the questions as playing into a culture war and falling for what he has called “Viktor Orbán’s propaganda rubber bone,” in the form of policies meant to distract from the economic situation of Hungarians. With that criticism, further anti-LGBTQ+ laws might be less likely, but repealing old ones does not appear to be a top priority for Magyar.

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