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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
April 13, 2026
On Sunday, it happened: Viktor Orban was defeated. In an election with the highest voter turnout in Hungarys democratic history, Peter Magyar’s Tisza Party won a two-thirds supermajority, enough to alter the constitution that Orban had rewritten to shore up his power.
Some admirers of Orban have argued that the fact that he lost proves he was never an autocrat to begin with. What it really demonstrates, however, is that opposition to Fidesz was so strong it was able to overwhelm all the structures Orban put in place to protect his rule: wildly distorted voting districts, a captured media, state-sponsored propaganda, local patronage networks, and widespread threats and intimidation.
Why is my bullshit meter going off? All I’m hearing is about how Orban is bad, which I agree with. But I hear nothing of the other guy, and it’s making me think to the Yevgeny Prigozhin death, who IMHO, was an even worse option than Putin.
If you read the article, you would hear some things about the other guy. Half the article was about him.
To recap:
center-right instead of authoritarian-right
European/NATO/EU-aligned instead of Russian-aligned
Still anti-immigrant
Probably not pro-LGBT+, but seems to be a lot less anti-LGBT+ than Orban – Doesn’t show up for Pride events, but also doesn’t demonize LGBT+ people in every speech like Orban did.
No ties to Israel or Russia.
Promises to prosecute members of the Orban regime who enriched themselves at taxpayer expense.
A mixed bag, certainly. Could be better … but could also be worse. The important thing is that he’ll – hopefully – restore fair democracy in the country, undoing Orban’s corruption of the election process and giving others a fair chance at winning in the next election. So, hopefully, the next election could bring in somebody even better.
You’re right on all fronts about me, but in my defense, I’ve given up on the War Crimes Times. So I take it that’s it’s a bad, which is better than worse? And Orban supporters think that he lost because Orban wasn’t bad/authoritarian enough?
He’s not perfect, but perfect is the enemy of good. Sometimes a small w is all you’re going to get.
Which is what my initial question was. Is he actually “good” or is just “Not Orban”?
Not being Orban with different ideas on key points is certainly a big part of it. He does have political experience, says he wants to tackle corruption, is more pro-EU and perhaps Ukraine as well
Everything I read about him, to me, reads as a controlled opposition / “alternative” and things will mostly be business as usual for him, with the caveat that his party is staunchly anti-government corruption, although I have seen anti-corruption gut perfectly good government offices and programs (looking at you DOGE and MUSKYBOI)
I don’t share the elation of everyone else, but I am also not Hungarian, my hopes and thoughts are with them.
I would agree, except that the controlled opposition is designed to:
I think that in this example, he doesn’t pass enough tests to be controlled opposition, but that does not mean that they can’t gain control of him after the fact through threats, intimidation, and bribery. There seems to have been plenty of that going around.
Yeah, that’s kinda my fear. That whomever comes after him, will not just be worse than him, but also worse than Orban. And it’s simply because the new guy won’t change a damn thing. But again, not a Hungarian, just speaking as someone in USA, that there was no change during Obama, and I expect the person after Trump will be a milquetoast/corporate Democrat, and it will lead to someone worse than Trump.