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“Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban scored a fourth consecutive landslide win in Sunday's election, as voters endorsed his ambition of a conservative, ‘illiberal’ state.” Reuters
The right argues that criticism of Orbán is overblown and that American conservatives can learn from his success.
“Hungary is singled out for ridicule mainly because it declines to share the cultural values of the European Union or the progressive Left…
“No one in Hungary is arrested for railing against the government. No one is poisoned by the head of state. No party is banned from participating in debate or voting. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the Hungarian election was ‘well run and competitive.’ It did complain about a lack of ideological diversity in the media. If this is the prerequisite for genuine democracy, then the United States is in big trouble as well…
“Critics also like to claim that Hungary is in league with Putin. Orbán, certainly less antagonistic toward the Russian dictator than some of his neighbors are, condemned the invasion of Ukraine and supported European Union sanctions on Russian interests and oligarchs. Hungary says it has, to this point, received 432,000 Ukrainian refugees, more than four times as many as the United States has accepted. In a nation of 10 million, that’s no small commitment. Like Germany, Hungary relies on Russian oil. Unlike Germany, it does not have the economic might to threaten Putin without the possibility of incurring ruin.”
David Harsanyi, National Review
“Critics claim that coverage of the election campaign was dominated by a pliant media. Tortoise Media claims ‘80 per cent of (Hungary’s media) is controlled by the state or oligarchs close to Orban.’ But opposition figures privately admitted to me that when one measures media influence by the size of its audience rather than the number of outlets, the opposition had plenty of access…
“Orbán opponents note that gerrymandering did put them at some disadvantage in the race. But the scale of Orbán’s victory is beyond dispute, and the opposition has to explain why in a high-turnout election it lost by a million votes.”
John Fund, National Review
“It’s not hard to see why voters stuck with Orban despite Western disapproval. Orban’s low corporate tax rates has attracted investment, reducing unemployment from 11 percent when he took office to 3.4 percent before the pandemic. His government’s subsidies for women who bear children have helped increase the total fertility rate by about 20 percent since 2010…
“Fidesz’s domination of the media also likely helped pad its victory margin. But what country in the West would expect its incumbent to lose when its economy is fine and the leader represents the majority’s values? Orban will lose when that’s no longer the case.”Henry Olsen, Washington Post
“Orban is working with a more culturally conservative electorate than we have in the US, but he shows that if you are a conviction politician, you can run on common-sense culture war issues, against [liberal elites], and win…“In a post earlier today, I talked about a conversation I had this afternoon with a taxi driver who supports Orban, and said that he is sick and tired of being called a homophobe, transphobe, and racist because he believes in things that were ‘normal’ just yesterday. Viktor Orban is his champion. We cultural conservatives in America have very few champions like Orban. Maybe that will change soon. Gov. DeSantis gives me hope.”
Rod Dreher, American Conservative
The left criticizes Orbán’s anti-democratic policies and urges penalties for violating EU norms.
The left criticizes Orbán’s anti-democratic policies and urges penalties for violating EU norms.
“Though [Orbán’s party] won 53 percent of the vote nationally, they won 83 percent of the seats in single-member districts — including a whopping 98 percent of seats in districts outside of Budapest. This reflects stronger government support in the countryside, but also gerrymandering…
“In addition to gerrymandering, Orbán’s government has increasingly rigged the media environment… By 2017, about 90 percent of all media in Hungary was owned by either the state or a Fidesz ally, including every single regional newspaper in the country — but that still wasn’t enough…
“In 2020, Index — the most popular independent news website in the country — was taken over by an Orbán ally, who fired the editor-in-chief (80 of its 90 journalists subsequently resigned in protest). In 2021, the opposition-friendly radio station Klubradio was taken off the air; its frequency was subsequently assigned to a pro-government outlet.”
Zack Beauchamp, Vox
“After pledging to keep Hungary out of the confrontation between the liberal west and Vladimir Putin’s Russia over Ukraine, Mr Orbán has a mandate to obstruct and disrupt EU attempts to impose further sanctions on Moscow. At a time when European unity is paramount, that is a problem that western leaders can do without. But at a still more fundamental level, the EU faces the acute dilemma of how to deal with a member state in which democratic norms have been flouted to such an extent that Mr Orbán’s autocratic rule appears unassailable…
“Brazen gerrymandering of electoral districts – and a huge disparity in campaign resources – have grotesquely skewed the political map in favour of Fidesz. In 2018 the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the country’s elections as ‘free but not fair’…
“The EU has frozen Covid recovery fund payments to Hungary, amounting to 5% of GDP, over corruption concerns. In the absence of a genuine commitment to reform in Budapest, that money should not be forthcoming.”
Editorial Board, The Guardian
Some note that, after the 2016 election, “many on the center-left insisted the problem was our institutions: the illegitimate Electoral College, the dangerously anti-democratic Senate, our fundamentally unfair district maps and voting procedures. Many of these objections are perfectly reasonable, but none are sufficient to explain how Trump won…
“Trump's very narrow win in 2016 (like his relatively narrow loss in 2020) was primarily made possible by his small-d democratic appeal to tens of millions of voters. He won — with a little help from the system's extra-democratic institutions — because many people liked him…
“Viktor Orbán has done some bad things over the past 12 years to give himself and his party a marginal boost in elections. But his ability to mobilize the non-urban parts of his country in support of his government is far more significant and the true secret of his political success. He won — with a little help from the system's extra-democratic institutions — because many people liked him. That's a lesson [for] America's Democratic Party.”
Damon Linker, The Week
A libertarian's take
“Orbán's sweeping victory suggests that many millions of Hungarians, well aware of his record, are on board with his vision for their country. This raises the specter of a true illiberal democracy… A society in which 51 percent of a population votes to oppress the other 49 percent can claim the mantle of democracy. The problem is that it is illiberal, not undemocratic…
“Democratic institutions, important as they are, only get us so far. We must insist on liberalism as well: free speech, private property protections, religious liberty, freedom of movement, constitutional constraints and separations of power and rule of law and all the rest. We can't know which side of the 50 percent mark we'll fall on; the less of our lives we allow to be put to a vote in the first place, the better off we'll be.”
Stephanie Slade, Reason
Dallas got Rickrolled by a floating QR code made of drones.
Happy Magazine
