Orban ousted after 16 year

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a key opponent of European Union efforts to help Ukraine fend off Russia's invasion, lost power after 16 years on Sunday as Hungarians voted in record numbers for a pro-EU course spearheaded by centre-right rival Peter Magyar. Orban, had won endorsements from U.S. President Donald Trump and some top European conservatives, but early results showed his nationalist Fidesz party losing to Peter Magyar's pro-EU Tisza party due to Hungary's economic stagnation.



A fiery anti-Communist youth leader during the Cold War, Orban, the European Union's longest-serving leader, is a patriotic hero to supporters, but critics at home and abroad have accused him of taking Hungary on an authoritarian path.



Orban trained as a lawyer, briefly studied political philosophy at Oxford, and even played semi-professional soccer before becoming prime minister for the first time in 1998 at just 35.



Hungary joined NATO on Orban's watch but he lost power in 2002.



After eight years in opposition, he won a landslide victory in 2010, enabling him to rewrite Hungary's constitution and pass major laws aimed at creating an "illiberal democracy".