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.