What is the significance of the Hungarian election for the world?
Five years ago, well before the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015, I posted about the Orbanization of Europe and the “Hungarian disease”. That was when it became obvious that the “Politically Correct liberal” status quo in the world is being threatened and Hungary could be in the very epicentre of the global change which could destroy PC-liberalism.
Then came 2015 when, using the words of the left-liberal political site Politico, which named PM Orban as Number One among those “who are shaping, shaking and stirring Europe”, and Hungary really started “punching above her weight”, using their words again.
Foreign Policy, an influential American neolib/con journal wrote this in 2016:
Orban’s populist intuition has enabled him to set the political agenda far beyond Hungary. Despite being one of the EU’s newer and poorer members, his country has punched above its weight.
Then this global political change reached the USA and President Trump was elected last year. Viktor Orbán was the only Western leader who endorsed Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. If you look at the comment sections of neolib-neocon media like The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Yahoo, The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc. then you will see that a very significant number of their readers sharply reject the false picture their articles draw about Hungary and PM Orbán. I would risk to say even that PM Orbán has reached a kind of political stardom in the West.
“Look East“, suggested a leading French journalist and political thinker in the influential French newspaper Le Figaro a few days ago.
Orbán has invented the theory of illiberalism which he contrasted with liberalism but not with market economy. … This confrontation between liberalism and illiberalism, between ‘the rule of law’ and democracy, will be the main controversy in Europe. … The theory of illiberalism, which was born in Hungary, has spread all over Central Europe… and this Hungarian theory may be the big chance for the French Right as well.
A popular British newspaper wrote that “Hungary is a bigger threat to EU than Brexit. How Orbán’s victory could topple Brussels“. Though I consider this more like a click-bait, I still think there’s a grain of truth in it. The truth is that Orbán doesn’t want to dismantle the EU. He wants to change Europe, and the European Union, for the better. He wants to destroy PC-liberalism which, as he said, is suicide for the West.
As far as Hungarian domestic politics is concerned, with his third landslide election victory, Orbán has become the most successful Hungarian politician of all times. Only the political record of PM István Tisza from the early 20th century comes close but Tisza certainly didn’t make an impact in international politics.
One could definitely conclude almost five years after that blog post that Europe is being “Orbanized” undoubtedly and the “Hungarian disease” is spreading indeed. Actually it’s spreading even outside Europe. 🙂
What is even more encouraging is that the Orbán’s reply to his spectacular political success was Soli Deo gloria.
Politics in Hungary 
Chauncey Tinker
/ 22/09/2018I’ve commented on the OSCE report about the election in Hungary here, any feedback would be much appreciated:
“The Unholy Alliance At The OSCE”
http://participator.online/articles/2018/09/the_unholy_alliance_at_the_osce_20180922.php
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CarpathianViking (@CarpathViking)
/ 06/06/2018Well, Whorban obviously failed last year – only came on 2nd place in number of OLAF cases…beaten by Romania, a country put under special EU-scrutiny for corruption, the blueprint for the upcoming European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which Fidesz refuses to join, then it would repel Hungary to the 1st place in this list of shame…
Figure 14:
Member State/ OLAF detection of irregularities and their financial impact in the areas
of European Structural and Investment Funds and Agriculture for the period 2013-2017
Investigations closed with recommendations:
Romania 107
Hungary 49
Sweden 0
Click to access olaf_report_2017_en.pdf
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CarpathianViking (@CarpathViking)
/ 26/04/2018Well, How can a One-Party State loose?
Quoting the OSCE’s Limited Election Observation Mission Preliminary Findings and Conclusions (What would they have not found with a FULL Mission..?):
“The 8 April parliamentary elections were characterized by a pervasive overlap between state and ruling party resources, undermining contestants’ ability to compete on an equal basis. Voters had a wide range of political options but intimidating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing constricted the space for genuine political debate, hindering voters’ ability to make a fully-informed choice.”
“Access to information as well as the freedoms of the media and association have been restricted, including by recent legal changes.”
“Concerns were raised that the use of two different voting procedures for out-of-country voters challenges the principle of equal suffrage and that the distinction was based on partisan considerations.”
“While there was a large number of contestants, most did not actively campaign, ostensibly registering to benefit from public campaign finance or to dilute the vote in tightly contested races.”
“The campaign was animated, but hostile and intimidating campaign rhetoric limited space for substantive debate and diminished voters’ ability to make an informed choice. The ubiquitous overlap between government information and ruling coalition campaigns, and other abuses of administrative resources, blurred the line between state and party, at odds with OSCE commitments.”
“However, the ability of contestants to compete on an equal basis was significantly compromised by the government’s excessive spending on public information advertisements that amplified the ruling coalition’s campaign message. With no reporting requirements until after the elections, voters were effectively deprived of information on campaign financing, key to making an informed choice and overall transparency.”
“The public broadcaster fulfilled its mandate to provide free airtime to contestants, but its newscasts and editorial outputs clearly favoured the ruling coalition, at odds with international standards.”
“The Roma were subject to derogatory comments in the campaign. Further, the dependence of many Roma on the locally-administered public works scheme made them vulnerable to intimidation and vote-buying.”
“Contrary to OSCE commitments, citizen election observation is not permitted. Legislative constraints and intimidating rhetoric by the government stifled civil society’s involvement in election-related activities, limiting the public’s access to non-partisan assessment of the elections.”
https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/hungary/377410
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CarpathianViking (@CarpathViking)
/ 23/04/2018Hungary is set to lose out on EU-funds and now happens Armenia…keep on punching…
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Leto مؤدّب
/ 25/04/2018Hope you’re enjoying Mr. Orbán’s third landslide election victory, his third super-majority. 🙂
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CarpathianViking (@CarpathViking)
/ 10/05/2018Yes, after Armenia and Malaysia (which much reminds about your Whorbanistan election-wise) there will be a future for Hungary also, but we will see after the new EU-budget, if EPP/EPPGroup will continue to feed Fidesz EU-funds to steal.
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Leto مؤدّب
/ 10/05/2018You should really, really move back to Swedistan at last!
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CarpathianViking (@CarpathViking)
/ 01/06/2018Well, I have heated up the popcorns, chilled the beer and awaiting Whorban to change his stance against Ukraine and rollback some “Stop Soros”-laws…
“Readout
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
May 30, 2018
The below is attributable to Spokesperson Heather Nauert:
Secretary Michael Pompeo met with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Washington on Wednesday. The two discussed areas of mutual interest and opportunities for our countries to increase cooperation. The Secretary underscored the importance of maintaining a vibrant civil society. The Secretary also emphasized the urgent need to help Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, including the importance of facilitating and supporting Ukraine’s engagement with NATO, and the need to counter Russian malign influence in Central Europe. Both sides agreed that Europe should diversify its sources of energy and discussed increasing U.S. investment in Hungary. The Secretary and Foreign Minister committed to concluding a Defense Cooperation Agreement in the days ahead. “
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