TBILISI, April 15 – The election victory of Peter Magyar’s Tisza party in Hungary has become fodder for both sides of Georgia’s politics, with each camp trying to turn Budapest into evidence for its case at home.
For the opposition, it is a lesson in how an “authoritarian regime” can be defeated through elections. For the ruling party, it was proof of how normal democratic change takes place through the ballot box and by respecting election results.
On the opposition side, several Georgian politicians cast the Hungarian vote, which saw Magyar’s party secure a constitutional majority, as a warning to entrenched governments and as proof that elections still matter, even in an uneven system. Giorgi Sharashidze of For Georgia said, “The courageous Hungarian people wrote history,” and called the result “further proof that despite the unequal conditions and autocratic regime, elections are the single most correct way to change the government.”
Lelo-Strong Georgia argued that the Hungarian result showed that “no system is indestructible” and that mass voter participation can still break a system built to favor the ruling side. Party spokesman Grigol Gegelia used Magyar’s own remarks on Georgia to argue that Budapest’s political line has changed. Referring to Magyar’s statement that Hungary would not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, Gegelia stated that it was an “open and direct reversal of Orbán’s damaging course.”
On the ruling side, lawmakers seized on the fact that Magyar comes to power through the ballot box, while the Georgian opposition cast doubt on the results in 2024 which showed them losing and argued for holding a new vote. Georgian Dream (GD) officials congratulated Magyar, stressed that Hungary had gone through a peaceful and competitive election, and argued that ties with Budapest should continue under the new government. Levan Machavariani said, “Magyar’s statement regarding Georgia is welcome,” adding that the ruling party was waiting “with optimism” for relations with Hungary to continue “at the same level” as under Viktor Orban.
Makhashvili compared the opposition’s inspiration from abroad with trying to reinvent the wheel, while urging them to “respect the election results and their own supporters,” the latter likely a reference to how most Georgian opposition parties refused to take up their seats in parliament after the election in 2024.
