Don’t let the door hitcha

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Oh hooray, the first good news in what feels like years – Orban is out.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, a lodestar for MAGA culture warriors and right-wing populists in Europe, conceded defeat on Sunday in a general election, breaking the momentum of a global nationalist revival promoted by President Trump.

…

Sunday’s vote was widely seen as showdown between friends and foes of liberal democracy, a cause that Mr. Orban has battled against for years to applause from his fans in the United States, Europe and Latin America. The race was closely watched by the Trump administration and the Kremlin, both of which wanted Mr. Orban to win and both of which offered support in his campaign.

The implications of the outcome extend far beyond Hungary’s borders. The next prime minister may help alter the course of the war in Ukraine, a neighbor that Mr. Orban has cast as an enemy of Hungary, and affect European security. And the results will be looked at by populists around the world who view the Hungarian leader as a model of success and of pugnacious defiance of the mainstream.

…

Long a thorn in the side of E.U. officials in Brussels, Mr. Orban has consistently blocked European assistance to Ukraine, worked to water down sanctions on Russia and presented Ukraine, not Russia, as the principal threat to Europe’s security.

Those positions made him an invaluable ally for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin.

Well any ally of Putin is…

Comments

5 responses to “Don’t let the door hitcha”

  1. Sumi Avatar
    Sumi

    I see the Hungarians like JD as much as everyone else. Even for a seasoned pro like Orban, JD’s backing is the kiss of death. Big Daddy won’t be happy.

  2. Bjarte Foshaug Avatar
    Bjarte Foshaug

    Of course, as we know only too well by now, there are no permanent victories in this war. Keeping Orbán, or somebody like him, from returning to power in a few years, not to mention undoing the damage he has done to the political system, while the inevitable crises, emergencies, and scandals keep piling up and pro-Trump, pro-Putin social media platforms are working overtime to poison the public against the democratic government is going to be a herculean task.

    We’ll get back to worrying about that tomorrow.

    Today let’s celebrate :D

  3. Mostly Cloudy Avatar
    Mostly Cloudy

    If Orban’s gone, hopefully Giorgia Meloni, Javier Milei, or (dare we hope?) Cadet Bone Spurs will be going next.

  4. Bjarte Foshaug Avatar
    Bjarte Foshaug

    Ok, enough celebration, back to worrying. For years now people have been holding up Orbán’s Hungary as this frightening, dystopian image of where the U.S. might possibly, potentially, hypothetically be heading in some remote, far off, imagined future. And indeed, Orbán is every bit as bad as he is made out to be. And yet we haven’t seen masked people with guns in the streets of Budapest or Pécs executing innocent civilians with impunity or sending them to foreign gulags without a trial or any semblance of due process.

    Hungary’s decent into authoritarianism was the cumulative result of a slow, gradual process over many years. What Orbán did in years, Trump has done in months. Forget about the boiling frog metaphor: Rather than gradually heating the water one degree at a time without the frog noticing, Trump has skipped straight to the boiling stage.

    As I understand it, there was a time when Orbán at least seemed like (what we used to think of as) a “normal”, responsible politician, honestly committed to liberal democracy and the rule of law. Hungarians who voted for him, even as late as 2010, could be forgiven for thinking he was going to play by the rules (as he had indeed been doing during his first term). Those who voted for Trump, even back in 2016, have no such excuse. As I keep saying, the guy in many things, but subtle is not one of them. One of the very few things he can not be accused of is having a hidden agenda. The least uncharitable thing I can say about Trump’s supporters is that they are not “dupes” who have been tricked into voting for him by mistake. They knew exactly how corrupt, authoritarian, indecent, and dishonest he was, and said a resounding yes to all the above.

    Even though it took too long, the opposition in Hungary was finally able to mobilize in sufficient numbers to deal the Orbán regime a crushing defeat at the ballot box. As much as I sincerely hope to see the same thing happening in America, I will have to see it before I dare to believe it. And even then I will never again feel confident that democracy and the rule of law are back to stay. As I keep pointing out, the fact that all the supposedly carreer-ending scandals of Trump’s first term didn’t prevent him from gaining votes between 2016 and 2020 does not breed confidence in the health of America’s democratic culture. Nor does the fact that his attempted coup d’état wasn’t just insufficient to get him jailed: it wasn’t even enough to prevent him from running again, and then winning (!).

    When Orbán lost the election, at least he conceded defeat. As we all know, Trump has already disputed the result of at least two elections (he claimed to have won the popular vote in 2016, remember!).

    Trump himself is not going to live forever, but Trumpism is going to be with us for the rest of our lives. Unless something changes dramatically every election for the foreseeable future is going to be a referendum for or against democracy, liberal values, and the rule of law, and heavily rigged towards the latter option.

  5. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    It’s grim.

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