Russians Go Home, Say Hungarian Voters

Elections in Hungary marked the twilight of Moscow’s lingering shadow over European politics. Hungarian voters were primarily concerned with domestic issues – corruption, the economy, healthcare and public services. Yet the loudest chant on the streets, and the one carrying the most consequential implications, was unmistakable: Ruszkik, haza! – Russians, go home!

It is not the first time Hungarians have taken up that slogan. In 1956, they did so as Soviet tanks crushed their revolution — an uprising largely abandoned by Western powers, preoccupied with the Suez crisis. In 1989, a young Viktor Orbán revived the cry, becoming the first public figure to demand the immediate withdrawal of the Red Army. Decades later, the same man would cast himself in private as an Aesopian mouse offering to help an entrapped Russian lion.

In 2026 the crowds chanted it once more. Péter Magyar, the incoming leader, tuned in cautiously to the mood without repeating the phrase himself. Whether this reflected diplomatic finesse in a country still crawling with Russian GRU operatives – some operating under diplomatic cover, others not – is a question that now demands urgent attention. The momentum for change is real; the window is open.
Magyar’s decisive victory, which has handed his Tisza party a two-thirds parliamentary majority, does not magically resolve Hungary’s many problems. But it does create a genuine opportunity to reset the country’s geopolitical and economic orientation. The durability of that shift will hinge on how skilfully the new leadership handles simultaneous pressure from Brussels, Kyiv and Washington, while disentangling the dense web of political, economic and personal ties with the Kremlin that accumulated over the Orbán era.

The slogan may be old, but the moment feels new. For the first time in a generation, Hungary has a chance to step out of the twilight and back into the European spotlight – this time around as a success story.