Over the past two days, I spoke with two Israeli friends of mine who have been living in Budapest for decades. Both are successful businessmen, but each, in his own way, suffered at the hands of the autocratic regime led by Hungary’s outgoing prime minister Viktor Orban.

Both also spend time in Israel, moving between the two countries. They possess the necessary perspective to compare the situations in Israel and Hungary.

Neither was willing to be identified by name. Over the years, I have heard their stories about how Orban’s corrupt administration seized hotels, buildings and valuable businesses it coveted.

The fear remains palpable even days after the election. No one is willing to tangle with the outgoing prime minister, who, despite leaving office, still sees his associates controlling the centers of power he built and nurtured over 16 years.

“I’m torn,” my friend H. tells me. “On the one hand, I’m happy for Hungary. Orban plundered the country’s assets from its citizens. He also hurt my businesses quite badly. Now, people here will have a different feeling, and the economy may also improve after the European Union unfreezes the tens of billions it withheld from Hungary because of Orban.”

“On the other hand, I’m also Israeli, and I appreciated seeing Orban stand as a fortified wall, protecting Israel within the European Union,” H. says. “He saved us there from some very difficult decisions.”

On Sunday night, H. and his friends took to the streets after the official results began coming in. “It was euphoria – a festival that lasted all night,” says H. “Near the parliament building, the atmosphere was celebratory; the streets were packed, and tens of thousands crossed the Danube to the other side as well. For the first time, I truly felt what a revolution is like – like a Frenchman on Bastille Night.”

Everyone agrees that Hungary’s youth drove this revolution, and here the difference between Budapest and Israel becomes evident. In Hungary, voter turnout among those under 30, many of them students, doubled. The relentless campaign they waged against Orban drew attention across Europe.

“When I arrived in Hungary 27 years ago, everything here was dim,” H. recalls. “The Soviet influence was still palpable. People, including the young, walked with their heads down. No one had fully broken free of communism yet.”

“The latest generation has changed dramatically. I see it in my own children, too,” he continues. “Back then, they didn’t know or care about anything. Today, they know everything. They travel the world, see other countries, and do extraordinary things. Almost all of them are involved and engaged. Critics tried to label the youngsters as anarchists or ‘alternatives,’ but they were amazing.”

The comparison with Israel, however, is not a direct one. In the next Israeli election, nearly 600,000 new young voters will join the electorate. The common assumption is that most of them lean to the right and support the parties forming the current coalition, from Likud to Otzma Yehudit.

It is difficult to find precise polling that examines the voting tendencies of these new voters. Young........

© The Times of Israel