Donald Trump preposterously claimed to have effected “regime change” in Iran by replacing autocratic père Khamenei with even more autocratic fils Khamenei. Not that the country’s much put-upon people will have noticed the change.

Hungary this week saw real regime change. The sweeping, very welcome defeat of Trump ally Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power marks not just a change of figurehead but a qualitative change of system, a real turnaround from descent into autocracy and corrupt state capture. In an index of human freedom from the Cato Institute, Hungary’s ranking fell from 31st in 2010 to 67th in 2023, the lowest among EU countries.

Orbán’s defeat is a win for democracy and the rule of law in Hungary, for EU decision-making and for the future of Ukraine. Crucially, it may also mark a turning point in a 25-year worldwide slide through autocracy on the road to outright dictatorship.

Orbán has become a standard bearer, and Hungary a success model, for what he calls illiberal democracy. This is reflected globally in the advance of far-right nationalist populism that closely follows his and Trump’s remarkably similar playbook.

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