Lesson from Hungary

Bhopinder Singh

The Statesman

0
22.04.2026

Recent times have seen “strongmen” leaders like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mohammad Bin Salman, Paul Kagame, Kim Jong Un etc. rule with authority and intolerance to dissent. It is the norm in undemocratic and single-party regimes. But the recent rise of hard-right leaders in participative democracies with tendencies and instincts similar to “strongmen” leaders, is a new and growing phenomenon.

Herein, leaders like Recep Erdogan, Donald Trump, Rodrigo Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro etc., who proximate the leaders in non-democratic countries, had become an increasing trend. One of the early poster boys of this trend was Hungarian Viktor Orban. The unashamed hardliner had infamously said, “The new state that we are building is an illiberal state…” Counterintuitively, such statements had ingratiated Orban in the eyes of his mesmerised masses, who were frankly worn out by insipid moderation, perceived meekness, and political correctness. Like all authoritarians in democracies, the vain Orban even encouraged an ideology to be named after himself i.e., Orbanism.

Unbridled jingoism masquerading as nationalism became the prop to put down any contrarian opinion. From vilifying political opponents to diminishing or compromising constitutional institutions intended to serve as checks-and-balances on executive authority, Orban trampled with impunity. Even the courts, electoral bodies, and the so-called independent media toed his official line, obsequiously. Unlike the “strongmen” in dictatorships, Orban’s “illiberal democracy” sought a more surreptitious route of changing, restructuring, and controlling the narrative, from within the democratic system.

At times this is even more dangerous than overt dictatorship as here the façade of democracy is persisted with, but long-lasting structural changes ensure a deterioration in the quality of democracies and freedoms. Orban became the beacon for reshaping democracy from the inside. As is the norm with such leaders, populistic positions that fan and satiate the most wonton instincts of the masses (read majority), becomes invaluable. Orban railed against the “elite,” he fear-mongered about minorities and immigration, he practically shunned secularism, and contextualised all his inward-looking policies in some mystical hyper-nationalism.

Ironically, such bravado got much traction from the masses who got enthralled by his “muscular politics.” It was only a question of time before Orban openly started saying, “The era of liberal democracy is over” or that “multiculturalism is just an illusion” and “we do not want to be a mixed-race country” and most Hungarians saw that as refreshingly honest, and even necessary. Slowly, steadily, and perhaps unknowingly, majoritarianism started taking root. Expectedly, even entities like the international media, civil society groups, or Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), became targeted for their ostensible “non-patriotic” positions whenever they put questions to the Orban dispensation.

Orban dog-whistled “foreign interference” whenever he wanted to avoid being accountable by insisting, “we are fighting an enemy that is different from us… not open but hiding; not straightforward but crafty.”. He pitched the so-called “elites” vs. the common citizen, and that became a successful formula. It was only a matter of time before “othering” became normalised in Hungarian politics, as he took a hard stand on immigration by blatantly saying, “All the terrorists are basically migrants.” Suddenly, Hungary was no longer the Hungary of the past, but an oddity in the region and in the larger basket of the European Union. Many saw his populist appeal as the necessary solution to “undo the past”.

What really Orban constructed was a very effective centralised political system which became increasingly resistant to accountability for 16 long years (2010 to 2026). But despite all cover-ups and distraction ~ the reality and limitation of deflective populism, and constant instigation, got to the Hungarians who realised that perhaps Orban’s “muscularity,” and politicalincorrectness, was not a solution after all. In a shocking result, Orban was ousted from power by winning a measly 55 out of the 199 seats by a party that did not even exist till the last elections.

The fact that Orban had a slew of like-minded illiberal leaders like Donald Trump, JD Vance and Georgia Meloni campaigning for him could not help his cause. The till-now winning formula of hype-nationalism, xenophobia, nativism, and personality cult, just did not suffice. Seemingly, populism and hate as an electoral currency has limits, and the recent electoral results in Hungary have just proved it. This stunning result in Hungary has huge implications for “strongmen” like Trump who must undergo mid-term elections later this year. Like Orban, Trump too has peddled in reckless hate mongering and pooh-poohing of opposition voices as “fake news factories,” “bogus civil society” etc.

Trump’s MAGA pitch has the same strains of supremacism, “othering,” and the open desire to override the constitution. Undeniably, Trump like Orban too was brought back to power because many Americans had tired of the moderate, restrained, and supposedly “indecisive” politics of the likes of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or even the co-partisan, George W Bush from Republican ranks. Today as Trump bulldozes with his domestic and international agenda with the same disdain, recklessness, and brazenness as an Orban ~ a question emerges. Will the Americans too introspect on their choice of electing an unhinged Trump and give a similar thumbs-down to the “strongman” in the White House. Hungary’s election results could impact the popularity and rise of far-right politicians across the world. The perennial “us-versus-them” storyline propagated by strongmen can never compensate for socio-economic dissatisfaction (e.g., falling living standards, unemployment, rural stress etc.), beyond a point. Already Italy’s similarly populist Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has suffered a setback with her referendum on proposed judicial reforms, while France’s ultra-right National Rally failed to win major cities in the municipal elections. Is this the writing on the wall for such hardliners? Perhaps it is too early to state conclusively but for sure a powerful message has been put up for “strongmen” across the world to take note. However, the danger that such strongmen pose is that they fundamentally infect the system beyond their own terms. The election results notwithstanding, the appointees of the likes of Orban or Trump would remain embedded in local networks, institutions, and media ecosystems. That is the institutionalised mess that the politics of the seemingly assertive and decisive politicians can create. Perhaps the other message from Hungary is that you can pursue central-right politics, whilst still being inclusive, moderate, and non-polarising. That may be the larger lesson from Hungary and from the fate of Viktor Orban.

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)

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Lesson from Hungary

Bhopinder Singh

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