In what appears to be a stunning landslide, Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party has lost to Péter Magyar’s Tisza party. By a lot.
In his brief concession speech, Orbán said the loss was "painful for us, but clear."
Center-right Tisza party is expected to win a supermajority, which bodes well for the EU and Ukraine and not so much for Vladimir Putin, who is a close ally to Orbán.
Or Trump and Vance, who worked very hard to elect their pal Orbán only to see him defeated in what can only be a complete collapse of support. This, after CPAC spent a fortune over there promoting the hard right and strongman president.
This victory came after over a year of massive protests in Budapest and other cities. People were tired of their stagnant economy, corruption of the courts and passage of what they called the "slavery act." Turnout on Election Day was predicted to be between 74 and 78 percent!
The prime demand of the protest movement – the withdrawal of a recent change in the labor law that has been dubbed the “slavery act” and of the administrative-court reform – cannot conceal the deeper, straightforwardly anti-regime characteristics of the last days’ events. These not only underline the regime’s increasing irresponsiveness to the public and unwillingness to refrain from a further concentration of power and autocratization, but they have also punched holes in its legitimizing narrative and they can create a strategic opportunity for the opposition to shake off its paralysis.
And this is why we should never lose hope. We can do this too.
