Can Hungary’s Election Outcome Open the Door to Climate Justice?

By Monika Simon, Nagykanizsa Climate Reality Hub and Lorina Buda, Budapest Climate Reality Hub

Hungary’s 12 April election is politically historic not only because it ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule, but because it showed that a system which had come to feel entrenched can still be shifted by public will. Tisza’s supermajority means this is more than a change of faces at the top. It opens a rare institutional moment after years of centralised power, confrontation with the EU, and limited public accountability over decisions that shaped the country’s future.

Climate actors should care because Hungary’s vulnerability was never only about geography or bad luck. In 2024, more than 70% of the country’s gas and more than 80% of its crude oil still came from Russia, while the European Commission said Hungary still had sizable fossil-fuel subsidies with no planned phase-out before 2030. It was also produced by political choices: prolonged dependence on Russian energy, a battery-factory development model that triggered repeated concerns over pollution and environmental oversight, and weak protection for communities expected to absorb the costs.

At the same time, Hungary’s Constitutional Court has already ruled core parts of the Climate Act unconstitutional and gave Parliament until 30 June 2026 to adopt a more comprehensive framework. Civil society, among them some Climate Leaders from Hungary, plays a big role in consulting and pushing for higher ambitions. What we are seeing now reinforces a core insight: transformation happens when collective intention meets political opportunity. This creates space for climate and sustainability to move from the margins into the center of decision-making, supported by a society that has just experienced its own capacity to drive change.

What must now be watched closely is whether this opening becomes structural change. The test is whether the next government actually cuts fossil dependence, rebuilds environmental regulation, and invests in resilient alternatives that serve people locally. Hungary already has examples of that path: in Szeged, an EU-backed geothermal heating system serves over 28,000 households and more than 400 public buildings while reducing gas use by around half.

Climate justice will depend on whether that kind of public-interest transition becomes the norm, rather than the exception.