520. Orbán Ousted: Is The Tide Turning Against Far-Right Populism?

“He had become a symbol of far-right, kleptocratic authoritarian nationalism, which, because Donald Trump is back in the White House pursuing much the same agenda and often citing Orbán as an inspiration, many had assumed it was the winning formula for modern politics and modern campaigns. Orbán has lost, and he's lost big. So big that he had no option but to throw in the towel long before all the votes were even counted.”

“And guess what? The Hungarians' queue from dawn voted in record numbers, 80% turnout, to say, no thank you, Trump, no thank you, Musk, no thank you, Mr Vance. Take your interference elsewhere. What was it President Zelensky said in our interview that was out earlier this week? I'm not sure sending JD is a good idea for Orbán. Well, how right he was. As for Putin, he sent in Money to Burn and Agents Galore.”

“Fidesz, for example, thought that they had a monopoly on Hungarian nationalism. Magyar developed a language and a style that spoke to a more inclusive version of it. Like Trump, Orbán portrayed his own politics and his own supporters as the country, casting all critics as outsiders. Magyar sought to appeal to Fidesz voters as part of a shared political and national community. And it worked.”

“I talked to Dominic Sandbrook about this on the podcast last week when he stood in Ferrari, pointed out that if you win power by posing as a man of the people fighting a corrupt elite, and you become the corrupt elite yourself, don't be too shocked if the people turn against you. Now Putin could get round that by going full on dictator. Orbán, not least because Hungary is in the European Union, was more constrained.”

“Orbán has been doing Putin's bidding for too long. The leaked conversations recently between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Hungarian counterpart expose that for all to see. Orbán has sought to block and undermine EU support for President Zelensky at every turn. It's now likely, definitely possible, probably probable, that the long-promised 90 billion euros of support will begin to flow.”

“But the more EU resources seem to be landing in the hands of his inner circle, his best friend, a former gas fitter, becomes the richest man in Hungary, the more Magyar was able to relate the industrial scale corruption to people's everyday lives. A part of Orbán's hubris was that because he developed a near Putin-like grip on the media, he assumed that their 24-7 propaganda on his behalf would work.”