JD Vance defends backing 'great guy' Orbán's campaign after landslide defeat

US Vice-President JD Vance has insisted he was right to stage a two-day campaign visit to back Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán five days before he was voted out of office by opposition party Tisza's landslide victory.

Insisting Orbán was a "great guy" who did a "very good job", Vance told Fox News he was "one of the few European leaders we've seen who's been willing to stand up to the bureaucracy in Brussels".

While he was sad Orbán had lost, he was sure the US would "work very well" with the new government, he said.

However, he said on Monday the US was a "strong and important" Nato partner and if President Donald Trump or anyone else called him he would talk to them.

Orbán will continue to run Hungary in a caretaker role until Magyar is sworn in, and the three party leaders with seats in parliament have been invited to meet President Tamás Sulyok on Wednesday.

Sulyok has the task of convening Hungary's new parliament and recommending the next prime minister by 12 May, and Magyar has urged him to do that as soon as possible and then resign, calling him a "puppet" of Orbán's government.

Magyar has suggested that he could become prime minister on 5 May, or even sooner.

Sulyok's office has made clear to Hungarian media he will not resign, however he is expected to discuss with the three party leaders when to convene the National Assembly and propose a new prime minister.

In another striking development, the incoming prime minister said he would appear on public radio and TV on Wednesday ahead of his visit to the president.

Magyar said on Monday that in all the time he had led Hungary's main opposition party he had never been allowed on public TV, until he was asked on Monday morning, after he had swept Fidesz from power.

He said he had refused that initial invitation and pledged to suspend all news coverage on public TV and radio until it could guarantee unbiased coverage. He spoke of having a board to insure state media independence, similar to the model of the BBC and other public broadcasters.

Magyar has set a series of tasks as soon as his party comes to office, having won a "super majority" of 137 seats, according to latest preliminary results.

Although they are not final, the incoming Hungarian leader believes Tisza will increase its margin of victory. Winning two-thirds of the 199 seats in parliament means the government has the ability to change the constitution and reverse Orbán-era changes.

Describing Hungary as the poorest and most corrupt member of the European Union, he says his government will create an Anti-Corruption Office and a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, and start the process of joining the EU's European Public Prosecutor's Office.

Viktor Orbán's government became infamous for a system of cronyism that allowed public contracts to go to favoured individuals, while rule of law was compromised by a lack of judicial independence.

Magyar has spoken of Hungary being robbed bare, with billions going missing in state contracts and corruption taking place on an industrial scale.

Top of his priorities will be to unlock billions of euros in EU funding and loans that were frozen because of a variety of issues such as rule of law and democratic backsliding under Orbán.

An estimated €17bn (£14.8bn) has been suspended, but Hungary is also waiting for €16bn more to be approved in defence loans.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she had spoken to Magyar on Tuesday and said there was "swift work to be done to... restore the rule of law [and] realign with our shared European values".

Meanwhile, EU leaders are urgently pushing for Hungary to overturn a veto imposed by Orbán on €90bn in aid to Ukraine in the weeks leading up to the election.

Magyar has made clear he does not consider the veto to be relevant, as Hungary was one of three countries that opted out of the loan to Ukraine last December.

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz has stressed that the aid to Kyiv should be released "very quickly" with the change of government in Hungary. Merz met Magyar earlier this year in Munich, and the new Hungarian leader will make Berlin one of first foreign destinations.