All of Viktor Orbán's defeats

The defeat of Viktor Orbán at the ballot box has a few losers. The end of the hitherto all-powerful Hungarian prime minister and the European Union's longest-serving leader is the result of a series of miscalculations and a widespread weariness with the excesses of clientelistic patronage in a country plagued by inflation, wage erosion, and chronic underinvestment in healthcare, education, and public services. Orbán got his message, his friends, and his enemies wrong. Economic discontent has prevailed over the discourse of fear and external threats.

The undeniable defeat of Fidesz, after 16 years of absolute power, shows that there is a limit to criminalizing the European Union: the risk of being excluded from it. One only has to look at the accelerated evolution of Péter Magyar's pro-European discourse. When the elections became a dilemma between East and West, Hungarians turned out in massive numbers to vote to regain their relationship with the European Union. Magyar's campaign managed to connect with the slogans of "Hungary in 1989" or "1956," which cried out in the streets, "Russians, go home."

Orbán's arrogance blinded him. Having become a counterpower in Brussels, he failed to understand that, despite everything, the EU is much more than a threat to the sovereignty of its member states.

Montenegro aspires to become the 28th partner of the European Union in 2028, and Albania hopes to be next. Meanwhile, Iceland will hold a referendum next August to decide whether to reopen negotiations with the EU, and in Norway the debate has returned to public conversation.

of illiberalism– and his administration, who tried so hard to save their ally.

Orbán's fall is also a setback for trumpist Europe: "A cold shower," according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, for the far-right that has gained strength in the Union. The leader of the so-called European "patriots," until recently a "hero" –as Steve Bannon called him– and an inspiration for the political project of the radical right in the United States, has instead become the symbol of the vulnerability of Donald Trump –older brother of illiberalism– and his administration, who tried so hard to save their ally.

The bear hug of an out-of-control Donald Trump is not infallible. The rhetorical attacks of the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance, accusing the EU of political interference were dampened by the reality of the United States National Security Strategy, which states, in black and white, that Washington is willing to finance political parties and civil organizations that challenge the EU from within.

Orbán's alliances only served to sink him a little further into his contradictions. The Fidesz leader, who in his speeches equated the European Union with the Soviet Union, ended up relying on the support of the Kremlin and Russian disinformation networks to erode both Magyar and the EU.

In 2023, the then Czech Foreign Minister had already accused him of being the “Trojan horse” of “russian interests”, and the current Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has even hinted that he leaks information from the Twenty-seven's discussions to the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin has lost an important ally.

“The change will be evident, especially in international politics – the president of the Hungarian-Europe Society, István Hegedüs, tells me –, because this pro-Russian stance and all the anti-Ukrainian propaganda rhetoric will disappear.” “It is a message for Orbán's friends in the world,” emphasizes this former liberal activist, who coincided with Orbán in his early years of political activism, but who on Tuesday confessed to me that he had been waiting 16 years for this day.

Now Péter Magyar will have to read the results carefully. He is the winner of a massive mobilization against Orbán. The winner of the end of an era that marked the path for the radicalization of the European right and which today is a little weaker.