Morning opening: JD Vance ‘sad that Orbán lost,’ but will work with new Magyar government

Jakub Krupa

Hungarian election winner Péter Magyar has been invited to meet with the Hungarian president, Tamás Sulyok, on Wednesday to discuss the government-formation process following the stunning win over Viktor Orbán in Sunday’s election.

The meeting could be a bit awkward, given Magyar’s repeated calls for Sulyok, an Orbán loyalist, to resign from the office.

“He was appointed to sign everything; every document that he is presented with – whether it’s the menu or the constitution or the laws – so we don’t need people like that. To me, he is not the president,” he said yesterday.

Erm, nice weather, Mr President, huh?

Speaking of presidents, we finally heard from the US vice-president JD Vance overnight as he defended his decision to travel to Budapest last week to interfere with the Hungarian election support Orbán in the final days of the campaign.

Appearing on Fox News, he said he was “said that [Orbán] lost,” but insisted the intervention “was not about Russia, and fundamentally, it was not about Europe,” merely a sign of thanks from the US administration for defending its interests against the EU bureaucracy.

“He’s one of the few European leaders we’ve seen who’s been willing to stand up to the bureaucracy in Brussels that has been very, very bad for the United States. So for example, when you see a European bureaucrat go after an American company, sometimes the only vote ‘no,’ the only vote to protect that American interest, has been Viktor Orbán.”

Vance added that the White House “certainly knew there was a very good chance that Viktor would lose that election,” but he wanted to “stand behind a person who had stood by us for a very long time.”

He also insisted that Orbán “is a great guy who’s done a very good job,” before adding:

“I think that his legacy in Hungary is transformational, 16 years, fundamentally changing that country.”

Well, hard to disagree with that.

But in a sign that will be reassuring to the incoming Magyar administration, however, he declared that “we will work very well, I am sure, with the new prime minister of Hungary.”

I will bring you more reactions and news from across Europe during the day.

It’s Tuesday, 14 April 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.