The resounding and unequivocal rejection of Viktor Orbán on Sunday extends far beyond Hungary’s borders. An ‘illiberal’ regime has been defeated, but with it has also gone a Eurosceptic narrative masked by a veneer of patriotism. One cannot reap the long-term benefits of Europe whilst constantly denigrating it or even hindering its proper functioning.
Apart from the outgoing Hungarian leaders, the biggest defeat is that of Donald Trump and his tinpot MAGA ideology, which attempted to interfere in a European election. Mr Vance, who was in Budapest three days before the vote and unleashed a torrent of insults in Munich in 2025, has been dealt a resounding blow.
Europeans are too polite to do the same during the US elections next November. They could, however, explain to voters that they can no longer maintain serious ties with the current administration.
Finally, Russian and American interference in this election – a measure of their embarrassment over the European Union that is resisting their assaults – has been thwarted.
European citizens do not want to abandon the European Union, whatever their sometimes-legitimate reasons for dissatisfaction with the European Community. Opinion polls are unanimous: they have never been so supportive of European integration, yet they still expect more.
If proof were needed, Europeans now have confirmation that they have enemies – Russia, of course, but also, alas, Donald Trump’s America – and that they can fight them successfully.
History cannot be rewritten. Orbán was playing into the hands of Russia, which has done Hungary so much harm (1945–1948–1956). How can we forget that? The Americans have abandoned Central Europe so many times, and Hungary in particular (Yalta, Potsdam, 1948, 1956). How can we forget that? European integration brought Eastern Europe back into the community of nations. How can we forget that? Orbán went against the Hungarian people’s conscience by thinking he could flatter them and capitalise on their fears.
What lessons can we ultimately draw from these Hungarian elections?
That the people reject autocrats fuelled by corruption and misleading slogans.
That they find in the European Union treaties, mechanisms and allies to help them.
That Eurosceptics have no choice but to dissolve into the unprecedented union of European states, which respects sovereignties and renders their arguments null and void, and from which exclusion is too costly.
That the wild ramblings of MAGA and Russian revisionism will, one day, on their authoritarian path, always encounter the will of the people and the universal aspiration for respect for the human person, the rule of law and democracy
