The Election that Unseated Strongman Viktor Orban Is the Most Important I’ve Witnessed

The election that unseated strongman Viktor Orban is the most important I’ve witnessed

GUEST COMMENTARY: In these 16 years, Hungary’s new democracy has been on the line, taking hit after hit, as the government has taken over control of the media, rigged the electoral system, threatened immigrants and stripped away human rights.

Hungary’s strongman may have been defeated but populism isn’t going away

This week’s election humiliation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is neither a turning point for populism nor an inflection point for authoritarianism, Martin Regg Cohn writes.

Martin Regg Cohn: Hungary’s strongman may have been defeated but populism isn’t going away

This week’s election humiliation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is neither a turning point for populism nor an inflection point for authoritarianism, Martin Regg Cohn writes.

Has the Forward March of Populism Been Halted?

Péter Magyar waves the Hungarian flag after his speech during the TISZA party’s election night event in Budapest, 12 April 2026. Photo: Attila Husejnow/ZUMA Press Wire/AlamyAs Neville Chamberlain said of Czechoslovakia when approving of its break-up in 1938, “it’s a small, far-away country of which we know little.” For many, the same could be said today of its neighbour Hungary, a land-locked country in the centre of Europe, with only ten millio…