Four More Years of Viktor: American Backed Opposition Flops in Hungary

In what was supposed to be a highly contested election and in spite of Western media outlets continuously reporting throughout the campaign that Orbán’s government was on the ropes, the Hungarian people made clear their preferred method-of-government: nationalist, conservative and strong. 

Official results of the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections published after voting closed has named Fidesz as the clear winners in the election with a commanding 10-point lead. Results show Fidesz expanding its supermajority beyond 133 seats, in an election that was supposed to herald the end of Viktor Orbán.

The nationalist opposition re-enters the Hungarian Parliament after Jobbik moved towards the centre, with ‘Our Homeland’ taking a number of seats. While the situation is still developing, what is clear is the victory of the Government over the alliance of leftists, liberals and the former ‘far-right’ of Jobbik.

Formerly existing on the neo-nazi fringe, Jobbik had transformed itself into a Liberal-Centrist party through a mixture of cynicism and some might say opportunism. When the progressive reaction was not shock, it was a calculated deafness – Bodhaire uí Laoghaire.

Despite pressure from the international media, supranational bodies like the European Commission, and the alleged political interference by the Ukrainian Government in support of the Opposition, Hungarian voters chose the stable, steadfast leadership of Orbán and the Fidesz party.

Stitched together with American support, the Opposition’s results have so far been so paltry that they have even conceded two districts in the nominally liberal-leaning capital of Budapest.

Despite allegations of rigging, little notice has been paid internationally to attempts by Big Tech to bolster anti-Orbán forces, as well as their deplatforming of the nationalist opposition of ‘Our Homeland’.

Elected on a promise to keep Hungary out of the Ukrainian war, and to protect Hungarian energy supplies for customers, Orbán will come away with a strong hand and a fresh mandate to deal with the European Union over the supposed ‘rule of law’ issues. On the European stage this election also ensures that Hungary can continue to aid governments such as Poland’s with their ever-useful veto.

The broader significance of this result cannot be denied, and no doubt the forces of global neoliberalism have long been keenly aware of it too. As long as nationalist and conservative parties hold government in Hungary and Poland they stand as clear examples of the viability of our beliefs. No longer can other nationalist parties across Europe be beaten over the head with the old stick of “inexperience and insanity”. The old neoliberal cry, “they’re crazed fanatics, let them into government and they’ll destroy everything!” already rings hollow, while the meteoric rise of parties such as Vox, AUR, and Fratelli continues steadily onwards.

Portrayed as an authoritarian strongman Orbán is, however, merely a liberal democrat from yesteryear, and indeed he made his name taking a leading position in a liberal students group during the collapse of the Soviet Union – albeit a libdem that twigs the increasingly limited road of American backed liberalism in Europe. Covid lockdowns, transgenderism and suicidal quantities of mass migration was never part of the bill when Hungary flipped to liberal democracy in the 90s and its veering rightward is born out of an understanding that the European liberal way of life is doomed.

Orbán’s triumph leaves Hungary in an almost optimal position politically with a hobbled progressive opposition and a nationalist party to bite at Orbán’s heels from the right. In fact, the scale of this triumph now grants many dissident thinkers a great privilege, the freedom to criticise the Fidesz government from the Right!

While it is expected that there will be the typical fanfare of an attempted colour revolution, the results are too conclusive to be seriously challenged. NATO also needs to keep Budapest on side owing to present predicaments in Ukraine.

The Orbán victory is a victory for European nationalists and conservatives alike, and the Resurrection of Hungary once again shows the path which we must take. It would not be the first time Irishmen have found inspiration in that central European nation. Dublin, far from chastisement, ought to take inspiration from Budapest and learn to stand with its shoulders back and its chin held high, rather than taking its marching orders from Brussels, Whitehall and Washington.

The future of Europe is being born in Budapest.