Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw his closest European ally completely defeated in Sunday’s Hungarian election.
The result was a blow to Israel’s longest-serving leader in an election year and emboldened Israel’s opposition, which sees the next vote in October as a watershed moment for the country.
Like US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly supported Orbán and recorded a personal support video at CPAC. “Viktor Orban stands for safety, security and stability,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded statement. Mr Orbán’s son Yair, who has cultivated ties to his Fidesz party, attended the event in person and called Budapest “almost a second home.”
Netanyahu has also praised Orban’s efforts to combat public anti-Semitism, even though he himself has faced accusations of anti-Semitism for rewriting Hungary’s Holocaust history and negatively portraying leftist Jewish philanthropist George Soros and Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelenskiy.
In a statement on social media on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Orbán a “true friend of Israel who resolutely stood by Israel in the face of unfair international slander.” He then congratulated Piotr Magyar on his election victory.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu’s American pollster John McLaughlin, who also works for Trump, also advised Orban’s campaign.
The deep relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Orbán, developed over the past 15 years, goes far beyond right-wing messages. Last year, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over the Gaza war, Budapest announced its withdrawal from the ICC, making Hungary one of the few global destinations Netanyahu could visit without risking arrest.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly blocked the European Union from condemning or taking punitive measures against Israel. Such measures require unanimity, but President Orbán has not shied away from blocking action unilaterally.
For Israel’s opposition, Orban’s defeat is seen as a moment of hope and proof that even the most entrenched illiberal governments can be voted out.
Leftist Democratic lawmaker Efrat Leiten called the result “a message of hope.” “The idea that leaders who control institutions and media are invincible to defeat has been shattered,” she told CNN. “The lesson for Israel is unity, patience and faith in civil society.”
Since the current Netanyahu government took office in January 2023, Israeli opposition groups have repeatedly cited Orbán’s Hungary as a cautionary model for what Netanyahu is pursuing at home: hollowing out checks and balances and weakening the independence of the judiciary and media.
“Israel will not become Hungary” was one of the central slogans of the 2023 mass protests against the Netanyahu government’s sweeping judicial reforms and legislative blitzkrieg. A March 2026 report by left-wing think tank Zlat said Israel was moving toward a “partially authoritarian” regime. The report claimed that, unlike Orbán, Prime Minister Netanyahu had never formally declared his country an “illiberal democracy,” but that his government’s actions were moving it closer to it.
Mr. Orban’s defeat does not guarantee victory for those seeking to oust Netanyahu, but it provides a lesson for those seeking to oust the Israeli prime minister.
“Change doesn’t just happen in the hallways of Congress,” Leiten said. “It starts in the streets and with people who refuse to give up.” But Leiten points out that this requires something that Israel has often lacked: unity among the opposition. Netanyahu’s critics are encouraged by the message emerging from President Orban’s defeat, but it remains to be seen whether their optimism is justified.
