Hungary’s political shift unlikely to disrupt ties with China, experts say

Hungary’s stunning political transition will not trigger a dramatic overturning of its ties with China, Chinese experts suggest, with China-EU relations also expected to see limited impact.

A landslide parliamentary election victory on Sunday for the centre-right Tisza Party, led by Peter Magyar, ended Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s 16 years in power.

Magyar is now on course to become Hungary’s next prime minister, and his Tisza Party is projected to secure a two-thirds supermajority in the 199-seat Hungarian parliament.

Meanwhile, support collapsed for Orban’s Fidesz Party, which was reduced to 55 seats – fewer than half of the 135 it held going into the election.

Orban’s defeat was within the realm of expectations, according to Wang Yiwei, director of the Centre for European Studies at Renmin University in Beijing.