Hungary's former prime minister Viktor Orbán will remain leader of his right-wing nationalist Fidesz party despite his defeat in the April parliamentary election.
At a party congress in Budapest on Saturday, 729 delegates voted for him, none against and eight abstained.
His mandate at the head of the party is limited to one year.
It was time for the "younger generation" to take over the leadership, the 63-year-old said in a speech at the congress.
Orbán also acknowledged that he bore the blame for the election defeat. He listed 10 reasons for this, including the party's failure to refute corruption allegations made by the rival Tisza party during the election campaign.
By this autumn, he said he wanted to strengthen Fidesz through a grassroots reorganization to the extent that efficient work as an opposition party would be ensured. "I never retreat," Orbán stressed. Fidesz also elected four new deputy chairmen.
Péter Magyar, a political newcomer, won the April 12 parliamentary election by a landslide.
His Tisza party secured a two-thirds majority in parliament, enabling it to fundamentally reshape policy in the country, including constitutional amendments.
This ended the 16-year era of right-wing populist Orbán. He was the prime minister from 1998 to 2002 and then from 2010.
Opponents accused him of creating a hybrid system of rule with autocratic elements, dismantling the rule of law in Hungary and hollowing out democracy.
The European Union therefore froze many billions of euros in funding. Orbán's pro-Russian and Ukraine-hostile stance also made the country an outsider in the EU.
