VOTE FREELY

“This is about what it says about what happens when the politics and policies of far-right nationalism are actually exposed to real challenge and real scrutiny. And it shows they can be beaten. Now, Trump went further than most. He sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio to campaign for Orbán.”

“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.”

“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.”

“And in the vital final week, he sent Vice President JD Vance, who seems to have been as effective at driving up the Orbán vote as he was at leading the talks in Islamabad to end the war with Iran. That guy is turning out to be quite a loser.”

“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. But he's not the only loser. Trump lost, Vladimir Putin lost, Milei, Maloney, Netanyahu, plenty of fellow right-wing leaders broke that basic rule of not interfering in other countries' elections to say vote Orbán.”

“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.”

“And guess what? It seems a lot of Hungarians seem to think that Ukraine is a country worth backing, Russia is a country worth fighting against, and the EU a body worth being part of and worth supporting. So the money spent on bribing voters has been wasted.”

“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.”