Hungary's outgoing PM Orban offers to quit as Fidesz party chief, local media say

Hungary's outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orban, ​offered his resignation as leader ​of his right-wing Fidesz party ‌on Tuesday ​but a party congress in June will decide whether to accept, a Fidesz lawmaker told local media. The centre-right ‌Tisza party, led by Peter Magyar, defeated veteran nationalist Orban at an election on April 12, ending his 16-year-rule and triggering soul-searching and calls for change within Fidesz.

Fidesz ‌will vote on a new party leadership at a June 13 congress, the ‌lawmaker, Erik Banki, was quoted by state news agency MTI as saying. Fidesz did not respond to a request for comment.

Orban did not speak to the media after a party ⁠meeting on Tuesday ​or post on ⁠his Facebook site. After the election, Orban told the right-wing YouTube channel Patriota on April 16 ⁠that as president of Fidesz he took "full responsibility" for his party's defeat and ​that Hungary's right-wing needed "complete renewal".

On Saturday, he said in a Facebook video that ⁠he would not take up his seat in parliament but "return" it to Fidesz. "I am needed ⁠now ​not in parliament but in the reorganisation of the right-wing," said Orban, who has been a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and who ⁠also won endorsements ahead of the election from far-right party leaders in Europe.

He also ⁠said on ⁠Saturday that the Fidesz party leadership wants him to stay on as party leader and he is "ready for the task" if ‌the ‌June congress supports him.

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