Washington– The big election took place over the weekend in a small European country about half a world away from Washington, but… Defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban It has great repercussions in the United States.
That’s because President Donald Trump and many American conservatives have done so He embraced Orbán for a long timeWho became an icon among the global right for his anti-immigrant stance. The US President’s agenda Amazing parallels The way the Hungarian leader used the tools of government to tilt the media, the judiciary and the electoral system to keep his party in power for 16 years.
Trump She supported Orbán’s re-election bid And even sender Vice President J.D. Vance visited Budapest last week — in the midst of the Iran war — to support the incumbent.
Orban’s loss was a reminder of how that happened The war has diminished Trump’s ability to help allied politicians abroad, as well as the limited ability of leaders to use their power to tip the vote in their direction in an era Universal discontent with officials From all ideological stripes.
“The opposition can win despite the skewed playing field,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of politics at Harvard University and co-author of “How Democracies Die.” “Democracies face many challenges in many parts of the world, as do authoritarian regimes.”
Orban’s defeat has immediate global implications because he was the European leader closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin and had blocked EU aid to Ukraine, which is defending itself after a 2022 Russian invasion.
Democrats and Republicans celebrated his downfall on Sunday, with some criticizing their administration for this public support of the Hungarian leader.
“Don’t mess with other democracies’ elections,” Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said on the social media site X.
“The freedom-loving people of Hungary voted decisively for democracy and the rule of law,” said Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union, is part of the American right wing that supports this Urban embraced. The Conservative Political Action Conference, hosted by the Schlapp Group, held its first European session in Budapest, making Hungary Regular destination.
Urban was a Distinguished speaker At the group’s conference in Dallas in 2022.
Schlapp said there was an easy explanation for Orban’s loss.
“At the end of the day, democracies only want change,” he said. “In democracies, there are no kings, and the people ultimately speak.”
“The people of Hungary were saying: We are having a hard time with inflation, the economy, and war. Let’s try the new guy,” Schlapp said, noting that he supports Trump’s war against Iran, but the turmoil this war has created, especially in European energy markets, has hurt Orban.
Diana Suswacca, a far-right member of the European Parliament from Romania, on Sunday described Vance’s visit to Hungary as a “big mistake” given widespread disgust with the Iranian war on the continent.
“You are inviting the representative of the United States of America, who created a big mess in this world?” Susawaka said in an interview published by the Kremlin-controlled RT network, formerly known as Russia Today. “This was the biggest mistake he could have made before the election.”
An anti-communist activist in his youth, Orbán was initially elected prime minister in 1998, but shifted to the right after being voted out in 2002. Upon his return to office in 2010, Orbán and his Fidesz party implemented a legal framework to consolidate the power he and his allies had put in place while he was out of power.
Orban embraced what he called “illiberal democracy,” building a barrier on Hungary’s southern border to keep out migrants from Africa and Asia who were moving north through Europe. He and his party Stifling LGBTQ+ rightsIt has been narrowed Freedom of the press And undermine it Independence of the judiciary.
Orban consolidated his power when his Fidesz party won enough seats in parliament during the 2010 global recession to rewrite the country’s constitution. They restructured the judiciary in order to funnel appointments to the bench through party loyalists, redrawn legislative districts to make it more difficult for Fidesz members to lose elections, and helped push Hungarian media companies to sell out to businessmen allied with Orbán.
The European Union declared Hungary a state “Electoral tyranny.”
Orban’s supporters have ridiculed suggestions that the Hungarian leader is an enemy of democracy, and on Sunday he quickly conceded his loss. Democrats worry that Trump will try to use his executive authority to tip the November midterm elections or the 2028 presidential election in his party’s favor, as Trump did. He tried to use his official powers To coup Democrat Joe Biden wins In the 2020 presidential elections.
“More importantly for American voters, even someone who is gaming the system can be defeated when people unite and turn out against them,” said Ian Bassin of Defend Democracy, a nonpartisan group that says it fights authoritarianism.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California took the opportunity to take a stab at Vance: “Your ally Orban has surrendered. In 2028, will you follow @JDVance if she loses?” He posted on X.
Levitsky said democracy advocates should not feel too comfortable with Orban’s loss, noting that Trump has been more repressive in some ways. Levitsky pointed to Trump’s use of the Justice Department to investigate political opponents and the shooting deaths of protesters by immigration officers, steps that Orban’s government never took.
But Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said he sees similarities between Trump’s and Orban’s political projects, as well as the potential fate of their parties at the ballot box.
“He was basically doing what Donald Trump is trying to do here in the United States,” Van Hollen said of Orban. “My reading of the election is that the people of Hungary rejected it, just as people in the United States reject it here at home.”
Trump did not make public comments on Sunday about the election results in Hungary.
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Riccardi reported from Denver.