CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Orbán Scowls, Academia Smiles

Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary since 2010, suffered a humiliating defeat (April 12th) after a record turnout of roughly 77.8 percent. His challenger, the center-right candidate Péter Magyar and his Tisza party, won 136 of 199 seats in Hungary’s parliament, or about 68 percent.

Hungarian and American academics, especially scientists in pursuit of truth, popped open bottles of champagne, spraying rooms across the land like baseball players winning the World Series. After all, Trump and his MAGA followers idolized Viktor Orbán. His record of achievement served as a template, but it’s gone down in flames. This is a stab in the heart of the nationalist right.

According to a BBC headline, “Péter Magyar’s historic win offers peace for a country exhausted by the tensions of Viktor Orbán’s rule.”

Viktor Orbán was Trump’s personal coach in championing nationalistic grievances and attacking academic institutions. Orbán specialized in demonstrating how quickly democratic institutions can be dismantled and opposition voices silenced. He was the European leader with by far the closest ties to Trump’s MAGA movement, illustrated by Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Budapest to endorse his election, a big mistake that incentivized more disgruntled voters than ever before.

“Orban’s closeness to the MAGA movement is now seen as a double-edged sword by some far-right politicians, with Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and the war with Iran contributing to his unpopularity in Europe. Orban’s ‘ostentatious........

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