![]() “But his nostalgic, revanchist tone plays on a mythological past greatness, which evokes a promise of happiness just by dint of being Hungarian. “It’s unthinkable that Orban try to take southern Slovakia or western Romania with military force, like Putin is doing in Ukraine,” said Lacy Kornitzer, a Berlin-based Hungarian author and filmmaker. Even though you regularly see Greater Hungary bumper stickers on car windows-with the red-white-and-green colors of the Hungarian flag covering slices of Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, and Austria-most of these sentimental types no longer actually believe in the realization of a Greater Hungary beyond its present borders. So what is it that Orban understands about his fellow Hungarians? How can he win again and again when in just about every other country in Central Europe the top leadership posts rotate like turnstiles?įor one, Fidesz has a unique hold on those Hungarians who hold a pronounced nationalistic worldview, carefully striking a balance between revisionism and realpolitik. But it would also be foolish to deny that Orban enjoys genuine democratic popularity. ![]() There’s no doubt that Fidesz has benefited from using its political power to manipulate Hungary’s legal and media landscapes. On top of all that, Hungary has the second-highest per-capita COVID-19 death toll in Europe.Īnd yet, about half of Hungarians will vote for Fidesz again, very possibly cementing Orban’s position as Central Europe’s preeminent politician rather than opting for the six-party coalition of the United Opposition, which includes socialists, liberals, greens, and conservatives. And now there’s Orban’s long-standing and now mortifying friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of neighboring Ukraine has flooded Hungarian train stations with refugees, many of them of ethnic Hungarian origin. It’s also despite ubiquitous corruption that infects and diminishes just about every sector of life-to the advantage of Fidesz cronies and wheeler-dealers but not the average Hungarian and despite a muzzled media that dispenses Fidesz propaganda so outlandish and absurd-for example, justifying that arms not be sent to Ukraine because they may be sold to “terrorists” in France-that it offends the intelligence of educated people. That’s despite knock-down, drag-out brawls between Orban’s government and the European Union, which opinion polls show a majority of Hungarians revere. Nevertheless, Fidesz is ahead in the polls. On April 3, the 58-year-old could well triumph again, though in a much closer race than his previous victories, which have earned Fidesz supermajorities in parliament since 2010. BUDAPEST, Hungary-Prime Minister Viktor Orban has ruled post-communist Hungary for around half of its 32 years, winning four elections as frontman of his national populist party Fidesz.
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