Orban suffers crushing defeat after Trump's and Vance's support

[Magical Realist]

Talk about embarrassment. They were both slapped down like dogs in heat! Is this the end of far right nationalism in Europe?

"Vice President JD Vance said Monday evening that he was “sad” but not all that surprised that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lost his bid for reelection, asserting that his decision to campaign alongside the autocrat in Budapest last week was more about showing up for a loyal ally than lifting him to victory.

“We didn’t go because we expected Viktor Orban to cruise to an election victory,” Vance said during an interview on Fox News. “We went because it was the right thing to do to stand behind a person who had stood by us for a very long time.”


The comments marked the first acknowledgment by the White House of Hungary’s sweeping rejection of Orban, which put an end to a 16-year run that served as inspiration for President Donald Trump, Vance and countless MAGA allies. Orban, in many ways, had been a model of governance for many in the MAGA movement who championed his advocacy for illiberal democracy abroad and sought to emulate it at home. Orban also took hardline stances against immigration and decried rights for those who identify as LGBTQ+.


“His legacy in Hungary is transformational — 16 years, fundamentally changing that country,” Vance said, explaining that his decision to stump with Orban last week was “not because we can’t read polls. We certainly knew there was a very good chance that Viktor would lose that election. We did it because he’s one of the few European leaders we’ve seen who has been willing to stand up to the bureaucracy in Brussels.”

Still, Vance’s inability to help Orban avoid a crushing loss opens the administration up to criticism that its ideas and officials are not the draw they hoped — and deeper existential questions about the future of populist nationalism.

“It’s embarrassing for them, and shattering in a way,” said Johan Norberg, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. “Much of the temptation of this whole populist right movement has been [the idea] that ‘we have people, real people, on our side — we have the future.’ Orban being re-elected again and again was a very powerful sign of that to them. So his suddenly being voted out with the largest majority ever in a democratic Hungarian election is a devastating blow to that whole narrative.”---- https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/13...t-00870227

[C C]

Péter Magyar is an ex-member of Orban's own party and a conservative libertarian. His Tisza party is a populist, center-conservative faction. Another anti-establishment party that's less overtly ideological than Reform UK, but seems to serve the same role in terms of being fed up with both the traditional left and right political units. Orban had been in power for 16 years, so it might seem rather extraordinary if he had garnered yet another term, albeit the ephemerality of US presidents should not be analogous to European PMs.

[Syne]

Yeah, it's not a huge shift in politics.

[C C]

Magyar will put Hungary on good footing with the EU again, reduce favoritism and corruption, and undo aspects of the New Constitution. But he's still a populist...

"Magyar describes himself as religious [...] Magyar drew from Orban’s playbook in this election, waging a grassroots campaign that took him into Fidesz’s rural heartlands. His rallies always featured lots of national flags, in an Orban-style appeal to Hungarian voters’ patriotism."

And departing completely from Moscow's former grip on Orban won't be easy...

"Magyar has pledged to rebuild Hungary’s Western orientation and end its dependence on Russian energy by 2035 while striving for 'pragmatic relations' with Moscow."

But...

"Hungary’s Russia relationship wasn’t the byproduct of Orbán’s personal affinity for Putin alone. It is the outcome of a whole commercial and logistical system that adapted itself around Russian supply because it was available, legal under exemption, and hard to replace quickly. [...] Even after Orbán’s loss, Magyar himself sounded much less like a crusading decoupler than many of his admirers abroad might have hoped. At his first postelection press conference, Euronews reported, he said Hungary would continue seeking cheap energy from Russia. 'No one can change geography, Russia and Hungary are here to stay,' Magyar said."

Plus, Magyar probably won't last till 2035. His ex-wife has accused him of abuse before. And via mere association alone he probably accumulated some degree of dirt during the years that he was a member of the Fidesz party, that will eventually be dug up.