Viktor Orbán’s political arc began in the hopeful language of liberation and ended with tens of thousands of jubilant Hungarians celebrating his fall from power. The outpouring of joy on the Buda side of the Danube on Sunday couldn’t have been greater than if Orban had been a dictator, ousted after decades of illegitimate power. But his tenure was legitimate. Voters elected him for 16 years running, making him the European Union’s longest-serving leader.
So, what happened? Economic dissatisfaction certainly played a part. But it’s more complex than that.
It took just a few years after his first election victory in 2010 for the young anti-Soviet, pro-democracy dissident to start working on the government model now touted by the authoritarian figures as their lodestar. By 2010, Orbán had recast Hungary’s political order into what he called an illiberal democracy. It was a system that preserved the rituals of elections while hollowing out the institutions meant to keep power in check. He rewrote the constitution, reshaped the judiciary, and oversaw a sweeping consolidation of media outlets into pro‑government hands. This led to the ruling party’s structural dominance, which legitimized election results even as it skewed them in its favor.
It took an increasingly young electorate and former Orban insider Peter Magyar’s exposure of rampant cronyism to turn public dissatisfaction into Sunday’s sweeping election victory over his former mentor. But some Hungarians rejected him much earlier.
And that may be a cautionary tale for admirers hoping to be re-elected in the US midterms.
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