Hungarians have spoken. They voted against Orban’s “illiberal democracy”.
It would be a lie if I said that I am not delighted by this result. I am. My optimism remains tempered, however. Does this result mean true change? A return to liberal democratic principles? Or did the country just replace one set of illiberal oligarchs with another?
We shall see. I remain hopeful but… guarded. The fundamental reasons that allowed Orban to rule as he did for the past 16 years have not changed. Nationalism, a misguided sense of history, the traction of grievance politics remain. How Peter Magyar will govern is still a mystery. The next several months will be telling.
But for now, this is good news. Fingers firmly crossed.
Meanwhile, the fact that all major news organizations treat this result as top-tier breaking news is telling. After all, none other than J. D. Vance, the vice president of the United States, visited Hungary just a few days ago, effectively campaigning for Orban. Trump also expressed his support. I already saw breaking news e-mails from the Associated Press and The Globe and Mail. The result is also top-page breaking news on CNN’s Web site.
Actually I visited your blog yesterday evening especially to read about this – but obviously I missed the timezone lag!
Various voices here and there predict or explain there could be no sharp turn, especially in the given circumstances – lgbtqxyz rights are one thing but involvement in global politics and economy is different. Anyway I’m too ignorant of the matter to judge, so we’ll see.
However what looked really nice is that results were accepted quite calmly, unless I missed something. No “stolen elections” claims, riots etc.