Some Hungarians had feared that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party would try to block the results of Hungary’s national elections on Sunday if returns did not favor him.
But when news came that Mr. Orban had lost — decisively — he delivered a swift concession speech. And Hungarians erupted in celebration.
“A huge sense of relief and joy has taken over public life,” Romeo Toth, a butcher and cook, wrote in a social media message.
“Now,” he added, “we finally have democracy.”
Mr. Toth joined a crowd Sunday night on the banks of the Danube River, across from the stately Parliament Building. Many people held burning torches, shimmering orange on the dark water.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many happy people,” Mr. Toth, who was out celebrating until 4 a.m., said in an interview. “Not even on New Year’s Eve.”
The election was seen as a referendum on Mr. Orban’s 16-year tenure as the leader of this country on the eastern edge of the European Union and on the global nationalist revival that he and President Trump both promoted.
Hungary saw its highest voter turnout since the collapse of communism in 1989. Many people were stunned by the defeat of Mr. Orban, a MAGA favorite in Europe who had moved Hungary closer to Moscow and farther from Brussels.
Despite deep voter anger over the economy and Hungary’s turn away from the European Union, some Hungarians had wondered if such a defeat was possible or could stick.
“I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime,” said Eszter Bodrogi, 52, who lives in Budapest and runs an information technology company.
Ms. Bodrogi said she had danced by the Danube, eight months pregnant with her first child, when Hungary joined the European Union in 2004. “I thought: ‘My child is going to be born in the European Union, what an opportunity this is,’” she remembered.
But for years, Mr. Orban’s party has cozied up to the Kremlin. Hungary has opposed critical E.U. policy goals. That infuriated her, she said.
“I really feel like we belong to Europe,” she said. “This was taken away from us, bit by bit.”
Ms. Bodrogi had worried that Mr. Orban’s party would not go quietly. “I suspected that they wouldn’t hand over power so easily,” she said.
Daniel Labrosse, 28, a Budapest-based artist, said, “It’s such a big change, and a change that I’ve been waiting for for so long.”
Mr. Labrosse said he had struggled financially under the Orban administration, which increased taxes for freelancers.
Mr. Orban’s party, Fidesz, had repeatedly tweaked elections to its advantage, reducing the number of seats in Parliament and gerrymandering districts. That meant that the vote would be free but not entirely fair.
Nora Schultz, an analyst who writes a popular newsletter on Hungarian politics, said some had worried that Fidesz might claim large-scale election fraud or find other ways to block the results.
She said people were “ecstatic, and relieved,” that Mr. Orban had stepped aside, paving the way for Peter Magyar, a conservative opposition leader.
“Now, we have a chance for a peaceful and ordered transition of power,” Ms. Schultz said.
With more than 98 percent of votes counted, Fidesz was expected to win 55 of the 199 parliamentary seats. Mr. Magyar’s party, Tisza, is projected to get 138.
Some Fidesz voters said in interviews that the result had shocked them, and that they were terrified that the fall of Mr. Orban, a nationalist, could spell danger for Hungary and Hungarian identity.
“It feels as if the ground has been pulled out from under my feet,” Tunde Gabos, a 34-year-old jewelry maker and folk singer, wrote in a direct message.
But Mr. Toth said Mr. Orban’s closeness to the Kremlin had hit hard for him because he grew up near the Ukrainian border.
“Hopefully, they will also manage to understand that we belong to Europe and not to Russia,” Mr. Toth wrote in a message, speaking of Mr. Orban’s supporters.
He, like many Hungarians, said in the interview that he was also frustrated with the economy. Mr. Toth said that he saw foreign companies employing foreign workers, instead of Hungarians, and that he had made more money working 40 hours a week at a McDonald’s in Germany than he did in 70 hours a week as a cook in Hungary.
But he and his wife had moved back to be near their families.
Some Hungarians have had to move away from their families to find work.
Kati Simon, a 26-year-old physiotherapist, recently moved to Budapest. She traveled about two hours back to her hometown, Dombovar, to vote. She said she had to move to the capital because there were no jobs in the countryside.
If the economy turns around, she would consider moving home.
She was happy about the election result. “We have achieved a new vision for the future,” she said.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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