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Adam Zivo: Orbán's fall is a win for conservatism

Despite what the MAGA crowd claims, Orbán was not a true conservative

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Some western conservatives are upset that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was defeated in a landslide election last weekend. This is silly: Orban was a rotten leader, and his centre-right successor, Peter Magyar, represents a superior model of conservative governance.

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Many on the nationalist right adore Orbán for his nativism, traditional values and nativist opposition to immigration. They believe that he protected Hungary’s identity, maintained public order and repelled a “globalist” conspiracy to usurp Hungarian sovereignty.

Adam Zivo: Orbán's fall is a win for conservatism Back to video

But while Orbán got some things right — particularly on immigration — his 16-year rule was marred by authoritarianism, corruption, economic mismanagement and deference to Moscow.

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After Orbán assumed office in 2010, he used his supermajority to repeatedly rewrite Hungary’s constitution and consolidate power through judicial and electoral reforms and the debasement of Hungary’s constitutional court.

Previously, Hungarian governments could only appoint constitutional judges with the opposition’s consent. Orbán immediately amended this rule so that a parliamentary majority could make such appointments unilaterally, then increased the number of constitutional judges from 11 to 15, stuffing the new vacancies with loyalists.

Orbán also removed the court’s ability to substantively review constitutional amendments. When it blocked his laws, he responded by adding them to the constitution, effectively immunizing his policies from judicial oversight. The constitution thus ceased to act as a guardrail for parliamentary power, and degenerated into a “get out of litigation free” card.

Orbán then reformed the National Office for the Judiciary, which administers the nation’s court system, creating a new organizational “president” (a party ally, of course) with the ability to appoint and promote judges. Though a constitutional amendment, his party then lowered the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 62, which purged the judiciary and filled the associated vacancies with more loyalists.

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Having captured the judiciary, Orbán gerrymandered Hungary’s electoral map to his own benefit and implemented other reforms that gave him a structural electoral advantage. For example, Orbán systematically dismantled the country’s free press and replaced it with loyalist media that would parrot government talking points, while denying airtime to the opposition parties.

Orbán created a loyalist-controlled national media council that could fine or sanction outlets for vague offences. He used publicly owned media channels to disseminate government propaganda. Private media organizations were not banned, but many were purchased and lobotomized by Orbán-aligned oligarchs, and those that criticized the government were cut off from public funding, as state advertising budgets were channelled to pro-Orbán outlets.

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Through these reforms, Hungary became an “electoral autocracy,” or “hybrid regime” — meaning that multi-party elections were held, but in an environment that was not truly free, fair and competitive. His model was not unique: there are many similar regimes around the world, such as in Russia, Belarus, Serbia and India.

Corruption proliferated and Orbán’s friends and family became miraculously wealthy, often through state contracts. His own father famously erected a luxurious palace in the Hungarian countryside, with two swimming pools and a massive underground garage.

Meanwhile, the Hungary’s economy underperformed and fell behind many of its neighbours. Despite Orbán’s natalist rhetoric and policies, the country’s fertility rate dropped to 1.5 in 2025, and the number of Hungarians emigrating abroad exploded. As European Union scrutiny increased, Orbán looked eastward and embraced Russia as his closest ally and indispensable patron.

Throughout all of this dysfunction, Orbán remained a darling of many on the right, especially those in the MAGA movement.

Blinded by ideology and partisanship, Orbán’s foreign fans took his rhetoric at face value and ignored the rot within Hungary. Some even decided that illiberalism was not so bad. Their delusions were facilitated by a constellation of Orbán-funded conservative-nationalist think-tanks, which, by the mid-2020s, had morphed into a cottage industry for influence-hungry intellectuals and unscrupulous charlatans.

This crowd’s moral bankruptcy — which was never particularly subtle — became even more apparent as Hungary’s political opposition coalesced around Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party won a supermajority in last weekend’s election.

Magyar is not a progressive. He is a centre-right nationalist who once served in Orbán’s government, but defected out of disgust with its rampant corruption.

Like Orbán, he favours harsher immigration policies, family values and protecting Hungary’s national culture. He differs, though, in that he wants to end elite cronyism, rebuild democratic norms, restore judicial and media independence, promote market economics, partner with NATO and the EU, and free Hungary from Moscow’s domineering influence.

On paper, he is the perfect conservative candidate. He is Orbán, but without the corruption, statism and anti-western loyalties — the central European equivalent of Gandalf the White, come to replace a fallen Saruman. He shows that nationalist conservatism can be proudly democratic and pro-western, and that it can be animated by optimism and pride, not paranoia and spite.

Yet many nationalist conservative influencers — particularly in the MAGA camp — claim that Magyar’s victory is a disaster. Listening to them, one would imagine there was a Marxist revolution in Budapest, and that, because Orbán failed to win despite rigging the system, Hungarian autocracy was never an issue. These so-called conservatives should be ignored. They’re just grifters with no principles beyond “owning the libs” and hating the EU.

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