BUDAPEST – There is a short, frivolous explanation for Viktor Orbán’s downfall: the Hungarian autocrat was thrown to the wolves by his wife, Anikó Lévai. According to a slightly longer version of the story, the culprit was not just one wife but two: Orbán’s wife and Judit Varga, the now ex-wife of his victorious opponent, Péter Magyar. Cherchez la femme. Just as Honoré de Balzac once suggested that behind every great fortune is a crime, Alexandre Dumas hinted in The Mohicans of Paris that behind every complex mystery, a woman (or two) is involved.

© Project Syndicate