Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, was finally defeated in an election that took place on April 12.
Orbán led Hungary for 16 years, during which time citizens endured a crackdown on free speech, the free press, LGBTQ rights, and immigration. He cozied up with Putin and moved Hungary away from Europe. The MAGA movement saw Orbán as a model — the infamous Project 2025 was heavily influenced by his governance style — so his loss is not just important for Hungary or the European Union, but also in terms of the global fight against right-wing authoritarianism.
Orbán’s defeat offers some lessons for how democracy defenders could potentially win the fight against Trumpism here in the United States. One of the key takeaways is that the opposition, led by victorious Tisza Party candidate Péter Magyar, focused on Orbán’s corruption and what it meant for everyday Hungarians. And as we were reminded yesterday, there’s no leader in the world more nakedly corrupt than Trump.
Aaron Rupar1d
Eric Trump -- the president's son -- is on Maria Bartiromo's show bragging about one of his companies landing a $24 million Pentagon contract
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To get some expert insight on the fall of Orbán and the reasons Magyar was able to beat him so resoundingly, we connected with Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of sociology and international relations at Princeton University, who has worked in Hungary and actually met Orbán.
Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social
Hungarians deserve every congratulations for giving Peter Magyar a bigger margin than Orban has ever gotten in all of his rigged elections - and this within the system that Orban rigged. Magyar now has a constitutional majority to undo Orban's constitutional prison and govern as a democratic leader.
“It was amazing what they threw at Magyar, and he just kept marching on,” Scheppele told us, alluding to all of Orbán dirty campaign tricks and the structural reforms he enacted to entrench himself in power. “By the end, [Magyar] was having these rallies of half a million people in a country the size of New Jersey. It was about making people feel like he had their backs if they came out and voted for him.”
“In the US right now, especially among the elites that ought to be leaders in all of this, people are hiding because of what Trump can do to them,” she added. “People have gotten off of social media. Universities keep changing their DEI standards. People are complying in advance, keeping their heads down, not standing up because they’re afraid. But once there’s too many of you for the government to do bad stuff to each of you, it’s almost like immunity.”
A full transcript of the conversation between Scheppele and Public Notice contributor Thor Benson, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
