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Orbán’s 16-year rule over Hungary ends in crushing election defeat
(www.politico.eu)
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this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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I see many "but he is also far right" comments. Peter Magyar might be on the right side of the scale, but he did not base his program on far right rhetoric at all. Its also impressive how many world class experts Magyar got for his party for major ministry roles. Many businessman and leaders from other sectors. Its a bit similar to the ruling change after the communism ended in Hungary, when instead of politicians, scientists, recognized intellectuals and experts got the ministry roles.
They seems to want to focus on repairing the damage, what Orbans gang caused, getting back all the EU funds and building up basic systems, like education and healthcare from scratch.
I'm part Hungarian and did not have a right to vote, but followed closely the whole thing and it might not look like it, but its a huuuge thing. All my Hungarian friends/colleagues are celebrating, after all they got rid of a cancerous tumor.
How did Hungarians get there first place? (to elect Orban)
i'm assuming he'll just end up being a pretty average european moderate, i.e. absolutely miserable but at least capable of saying (and maybe even believing) the words "killing our own citizens is bad, actually"
Similar to how Zelenskyy's politics are objectively not particularly astounding, but contrasted with the invasion by russia he looks like a holy saint
I'm not aware of the finer details of Magyars platform - What are his plans for all the Orban supporting public servants / judges etc.?
It sounds like root and branch reforms are incoming. It could be a great template for... certain other nations.
Pretty much he promised to get rid of everyone who was an active member of the corrupt system. Also he plans to destroy all propaganda media, and wants to go after the oligarchs as well.
Its a lot and we will se how much he manages to fulfill of the promises, but if they manage to achieve only fractions of it, Hungary will be already a better place.
During his victory speech yesterday he called on them to resign immediately. He also said there would be no mercy only accountability.
I hope that Magyar follows post-far right Poland on dismantling the far right loyalist media and judges.
God, I hope it's not similar
That's not what the right wing does, I'll be pleasantly surprised if I get corrected by the policy of the new party, but do not expect public healthcare or education from a right wing party. The whole "we have no ideology, we just want experts" is very often an excuse for right wing "centrist" policy. Don't get me wrong, hard to do worse than Orban.
i don’t see what that graph’s supposed to show. replacing the businessmen was in the 90s and here it’s a basic trend starting from the 80s, plus emigration restrictions immediately relaxing
i’m more expectant since national minimums was part of the platform
If your country prohibits its residents to go abroad for decades, then the borders open, and anyone can work or live abroad all of the studden I think its a normal thing to see. The worst part here is that the tendency continued even after Hungary joined the EU and Orban won his first elections.
If you had any idea what you're talking about, you'd know that migrations are only part the picture, the rest being massive increases in mortality due to unemployment, drug abuse, violent death, suicide and lack of access to healthcare, and decreases in birthrates due to economic instability and lack of social support and destruction of the welfare state. The migrations happened precisely because of the economic and welfare destruction in the Eastern Block due to the arrival of capitalism, not due to some sort of "emigration deficit". You're just proving to us all that you haven't done even the most cursory reading of the post-Soviet situation in the eastern block.
I'm happy to overcome my shortcomings and ignorance and learn from someone more knowledgeable. Do I understand correctly you put in this graph to predict a similar thing will happen? What are your other predictions? How is this relevant to this topic and why is important?
I'm not putting forward predictions with this graph, the graph just proves that "removing politicians to put in experts" is a slogan used by the right wing, the ones with the luxury of pretending that economics aren't ideological.
My prediction is simply that electing a right wing party won't solve corruption (one of the biggest perceived issues in Hungary after 16 years of continuous Orban rule), to degradation of working rights and welfare state, and will simply result in pursuing EU-dictated neoliberal policy in an era in which the EU has been stagnating for 20 years .
My alternative is not Orban either, I'm a firm leftist. I just with Eastern Europe hadn't been dominated by anticommunism for the past 35 years and actually had a chance to grow some progressive movements, which is hard to do when you reject all the progress and advances put forward by former socialism.
I can get behind your view, I feel the same.
Just to put it in perspective how bad the situation was in Hungary from up close, most opposition parties (leftist or not) had literally zero chance replacing the Orban regime in the past 16 years.
They destroyed their opponents with a brutal propaganda machine and twisted voting system (winner compensation). I saw it first hand, I lived there a few years and the brainwashing is not just a buzzword, most boomers love Orban more than their own families. I wanted to buy a house and live there, but we left after a couple years after we saw what the state media did to people.
This was probably the last chance to get rid of them and it was an incredible feat to pull off. Magyar might not be the most ideal candidate, but if your house is on fire you cant pick and choose the firefighters.
It's also interesting to note that Orban didn't used to be far right. He was sort of moderate and even on the scholarship program of George Soros back in the day.