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Reflections on Hungary as Viktor Orbán Exits

Do conditions for a pluralistic rebirth exist?

Hungary is in a state of euphoria, waiting for “The Man” to take the oath of office as prime minister on May 9. Péter Magyar is the man who was part of Fidesz’s inner circle before challenging Viktor Orbán and then defeating him in the April 12 election, sparking enthusiasm all over Europe. “The Man” is the way Magyar labels himself on social media, as if he were the star of a Netflix series or a teen idol. A huge celebration has been planned in Kossuth Square, in Budapest, to mark Magyar’s inauguration and his party Tisza’s entry into Parliament.

Anyone deviating from the party schedule is being labeled a killjoy, as the mayor of Budapest soon experienced. When Gergely Karácsony launched a concert “to mark the end of the system” on May 8, he found an angry comment from the future prime minister posted on his Facebook feed, reminding him of the capital’s dire economic situation. Karácsony rearranged his plans to match those of the party that controls not only the government but also Parliament: Thanks to the electoral law inherited from the Orbán regime, with 53 percent of the vote, the Tisza party has 141 of the 199 seats. This is what is called a “supermajority,” and it allows Magyar to do what he wants: not only change the Constitution, but also draft a new one, as he has already said he plans to do.

Now, the man who came from the Fidesz system and who benefited from it before the split in February 2024 truly has enough power to do whatever he wants. And that’s the point: Intellectuals can’t get drunk on celebrations. Keeping our mind clear and alert is the best way to honor Hungarians’ huge participation and commitment to change. “It’s not the man himself, but the change he promises,” young people told me a few days before the elections in a crowded “Regime-Change Concert” (Rendszerbontó Nagykoncert) in Budapest. Will these expectations be satisfied?

Even though Péter Magyar claimed that he is “different from Orbán in every way,” his positions suggest quite the opposite. Perhaps Magyar gives reassurances to the European ruling class, with which he is negotiating to secure EU funding, since he resembles the softer Fidesz of the early 2000s, rather than the latest version, pro-Russian enough to become a caricature of itself. But it’s wise to recall that the same ruling class has for years pretended not to see Orbán’s autocratic drift, as well as it is now pretending not to see Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attacking the rule of law. Back in 1993, Fidesz sold its newly acquired headquarters to a bank and gave the money to Orbán’s father, Győző: The true nature of Orbánism—autocratic and corrupt—was there for all to see, right in the city center at Váci Street 38. Since 2010, the Hungarian autocrat has taken over everything: the economy, the media, the construction of discourse; in 2014, he even transformed “illiberal democracy” into a global brand. Yet throughout Chancellor Angela Merkel’s era, Fidesz........

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