Hungarian citizens came out in record numbers to vote for democracy and against autocracy, ending prime minister Viktor Orban’s (+ Fidesz party) 16 years in power. In a move that surprised many, Orban conceded and congratulated the opposition party and its leader, Peter Magyar’s Tisza.
Since 2010, Orban has eroded the democratic institutions of the country by having election rules changed and having those independent checks on the leaders power, removed. He’s also stifled the media and enriched family, friends, and important loyalists. This of course came at the expense of everyday regular Hungarian’s.
The United States is on the opposite side of this spectrum now as democracy continues backsliding; American’s should expect things to get even worse as the current regime cements its own control (we’re only at the beginning stages). The midterms in November will be a key test just in terms of wrestling majority control from the GOP (where Congress is not performing its role as a check on the executive branch). Getting the right candidates (ones who will no longer be bought out by outside interests) is an entirely more complicated matter.
It should be noted that Magyar was once an Orban loyalist, but went on to oppose him two years ago. In these past two years, he’s managed to rally this record turnout to oppose 16 years of undemocratic rule. This election also gave Magyar and his party, a 2/3rd’s majority in Parliament which is important for making changes to their constitution (in order to undo the changes that allowed Orban to remain in power for that long). They will need to make a lot of changes quickly in order to prevent the bad actors from returning in the future (while proving to voters that they are following through).
This victory comes despite the following:
- Fidesz owning the majority of TV & radio stations + newspapers
- Fidesz gerrymandered large portions of the country
- Russian disinformation campaigns + support by Moscow
- Fidesz spending large amounts for campaigning
- U.S. government (both POTUS and VP attempted to prop up Orban) actively supporting Fidesz
- Documented cases of voter suppression
Again, the irony should not be lost on American’s as we experience this continued backsliding of democracy into a similar type of autocratic regime; just one that is highly incompetent making it worse (aka kakistocracy). Orban is an autocrat but conceded the race without making claims of the results being rigged because the results were so decisive that it was impossible to do it this time around (unlike the GOP majority in the U.S. who now weaponize that to sow doubt).
Both Moscow and Washington (the Republican’s in power) have been fully behind Orban where the U.S. Vice President went to Budapest to rally support for Orban. That highlights how out of touch our own regime in the U.S. is when the people of Hungary have made it clear they were ready to oust him with not just one, but many recent large scale anti-Orban protests.
The current state of affairs in the U.S. followed Orban’s blueprint in Hungary (Orban was a celebrated speaker at CPAC in Dallas, Texas in August 2022; CPAC Hungary was created in 2022 and held its first conference in May 2022). Much of the Project 2025 agenda including the activists and architects who now hold key positions in the regime, were trained at Orban’s think tank.
In simpler terms, the GOP stopped being a pro-democracy political party in the U.S. for well over a decade now where much of the underlying agenda is to wipe out one of the greatest strengths of this country, it’s diversity and the welcoming of anyone from any country (it’s prosperity is due to law abiding immigrants).
And this is why large scale protests are so important; in the end, the people who might be against that system of autocratic/fascist government will more than likely be far greater than the ones that are in power. And with large numbers, the possibility of overthrowing that establishment stands a higher probability of success. The flaws in the U.S. system of government has been exposed where business as usual will no longer cut it going forward in order to actually be able to fix it.
What remains to be seen is whether or not the GOP can successfully “rig this flawed system” to the point where they can remain in power sans a similar type of populist uprising that squashes the established two party system (both political parties are now fully owned by corporate and foreign influences where as a whole, they no longer represent the interests of the people they are supposed to be representing).
The dual party establishment in the U.S. has long tried to control that narrative in order to retain their power (where they can continue taking big money from corporate donors and lobbyists which again, is another word for “legal bribery”). The media in the U.S. has long been bought by those same corporate interests and have carefully crafted the messaging American’s would receive. American’s have long believed that propaganda was the thing of places like North Korea; and they would be wrong (I learned that a long time ago myself).
Orban’s ousting is important because it sends a signal to other autocrats around the world that their control has limits especially once normal everyday people, are pushed to the point where they are struggling just to have some decent standard of living. Here in the U.S., that level of control by the current regime is still in the process of being cemented into place (requiring holding power for several more election cycles in order to purge more of the key institutions including the military and getting more loyalist judges into place). But make no mistake, a lot of the guardrails no longer exist and the ones remaining, are very weak.
What will be a great undoing is if/when a larger percentage of the American public actually understands the American propaganda that has long been an avenue for perpetuating the division that has prevented this country from using its resources to really work for its citizens (versus the extremely powerful and wealthy reaping most of those benefits).
A lot of us believe it will take the American empire falling (which has the unfortunate side effect of hurting a lot of people) in order for major reforms to take place. As I so often write, I have no crystal ball. But I am a realist and know the system as it exists, cannot simply have bandaid fixes done. It requires major changes with those who are i power (regardless of party affiliation), not wanting to yield that power away (because it’s these folks that have long forgotten who they are supposed to be representing first; which is the people who voted for them, and not the ones that fill their campaign coffers with money).
