Hungary Elections and Viktor Orbán: Nation’s Centrality Shows Contradictions of Liberal World Order

Hungary is a relatively small European nation with an outrageously beautiful parliament building. The ruling party Fidesz, led by Viktor Orbán, has won four consecutive four-year terms. Knowing only that, no one would be surprised if voters had tired of them and tried the opposition. Hungary deserves a normal election.

But it will not get one this Sunday. The polls are all over the place. Those funded by the European Union and die-hard enemies of the current government show absurdly large leads for the opposition, sometimes by as much as 20 points. Those funded by the government’s media in Hungary show the incumbent party with a healthy lead of anything from six to ten points.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Hungary is a relatively small European nation with an outrageously beautiful parliament building. The ruling party Fidesz, led by Viktor Orbán, has won four consecutive four-year terms. Knowing only that, no one would be surprised if voters had tired of them and tried the opposition. Hungary deserves a normal election.

But it will not get one this Sunday. The polls are all over the place. Those funded by the European Union and die-hard enemies of the current government show absurdly large leads for the opposition, sometimes by as much as 20 points. Those funded by the government’s media in Hungary show the incumbent party with a healthy lead of anything from six to ten points.