{"id":47389,"date":"2026-04-11T06:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=47389"},"modified":"2026-04-11T06:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:29:17","slug":"zebras-wealth-and-power-hungarys-election-tests-orbans-grip-on-power-viktor-orban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=47389","title":{"rendered":"Zebras, wealth and power: Hungary\u2019s election tests Orb\u00e1n\u2019s grip on power | Viktor Orb\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The drone footage showed a sprawling residence in northern Hungary<\/a>, complete with manicured gardens, a swimming pool and an underground garage. But it was what came next that captured much of the country\u2019s imagination: zebras darting across the countryside.<\/p>\n

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The property caught on camera<\/a> belongs to the father of the country\u2019s prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, offering a glimpse of the staggering wealth amassed by his inner circle, even as most in Hungary have become poorer<\/a>. References to the zebras \u2013 which came from a neighbouring property belonging to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s best friend and Hungary\u2019s richest man, L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros \u2013 soon began turning up across the country; plush toys were sold at protests, people posted videos of their own treks to spot the animals, and photos of zebras were plastered over government billboards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey became a symbol of the limitless corruption of the whole system,\u201d said \u00c1kos Hadh\u00e1zy, a Hungarian independent MP who last autumn organised a series of \u201csafari tours\u201d to the area in protest.<\/p>\n

Those protests were just one part of a swelling opposition movement that has left Orb\u00e1n facing the prospect of being ousted after 16 years in power.<\/p>\n

The scope of this movement is set to be laid bare on Sunday, as Hungarians cast their votes<\/a> in an election widely seen as the most consequential since the country\u2019s transition to democracy in 1990.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Protesters at Orb\u00e1n\u2019s estate at Hatvanpuszta, which has become a symbol of alleged corruption and the wealth amassed by his inner circle.<\/span> Photograph: Imago\/Alamy Stock Photo\/Alamy Live News.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most polls suggest Orb\u00e1n and his Fidesz party \u2013 who have transformed Hungary into a \u201cpetri dish for illiberalism\u201d \u2013 could lose power, in a result that could rattle global far-right movements and reshape Hungary\u2019s antagonistic relationship with the EU. But opposition supporters fear the polls are underestimating support for Fidesz, or that Orb\u00e1n will find a way to retain power even if he loses the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cHungary stands at a historic crossroads once again,\u201d said Anita Orb\u00e1n of the opposition Tisza party, the political force that has shaken up the race and now leads in most polls. \u201cThis moment carries powerful echoes of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The election comes 23 years to the day after Hungarians voted overwhelmingly to join the European Union<\/a>. \u201cNow, on 12 April, once again, voters are not simply choosing between parties, but deciding the direction, identity, and future of Hungary,\u201d Anita Orb\u00e1n, no relation to the prime minister, said on social media. \u201cIn many ways, this election is a referendum on whether Hungary returns to European values.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a hint of how much has changed in Hungary since Orb\u00e1n took power in 2010. What followed was, in the words of Zolt\u00e1n K\u00e9sz, a former member of the Fidesz party, nothing less than a \u201ccoup in slow motion,\u201d albeit one that eschewed tanks for lawyers and clientelism.<\/p>\n

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The rightwing populist government had used its time in office to steadily whittle away at the checks and balances that constrained its power: rewriting election laws to its own benefit, manoeuvring to put loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of the country\u2019s media, and retooling the country\u2019s judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come to the point in Hungary when we obviously can no longer talk about a real democracy,\u201d said K\u00e9sz. \u201cIt\u2019s really a state capture that has been going on in Hungary with all the institutions that are supposedly independent. Whether it\u2019s the courts or public services, they\u2019ve been captured by one party, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the streets and across dining room tables, Hungarians readily shared how this has played out in practice, from the university professor who has lost his job after speaking out against the government, to the music venues shut down after hosting artists who backed the opposition, and journalists whose newsrooms became government mouthpieces overnight after changes in ownership.<\/p>\n

When Hungary\u2019s economy was growing, many paid little attention to what was happening, said K\u00e9sz. But as inflation soared after<\/a> Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and economic stagnation set in, rumblings began over the growing disconnect between ordinary Hungarians and its ruling class.<\/p>\n

It was against this backdrop that P\u00e9ter Magyar, a former member of Fidesz\u2019s inner circle, began speaking out<\/a>. As he accused Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party of branding itself as a defender of Hungarians while siphoning off state funds, corruption rocketed to the top of voters\u2019 concerns and Magyar\u2019s hastily formed party climbed to the top of the polls.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>P\u00e9ter Magyar holds aloft a Hungarian flag during a march as support for his campaign gathers pace.<\/span> Photograph: Bernadett Szab\u00f3\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Magyar\u2019s lead has held as the government attempted to ban<\/a> Pride events and mulled<\/a> hardening its longstanding clampdown on independent media and NGOs.<\/p>\n

What Magyar is up against is visible across Hungary: the omnipresent billboards, generated with AI and paid for by the government, depicting him as a danger to the country and a stooge of both the EU and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

The result is a campaign that has pitted fear against hope, as one Hungarian news outlet noted this week<\/a>. Orb\u00e1n \u2013 whose government did not respond to a request for an interview \u2013 has sought to convince voters that Hungary\u2019s biggest risk lies in the war in Ukraine, casting himself as the only leader capable of keeping peace. Magyar, in contrast, has focused on domestic issues, promising to crack down on corruption, funnel funds towards long-neglected public services and repair the country\u2019s strained relationship with the EU.<\/p>\n

A two-minute video released in January made clear the outsized role that the election in a country of less than 10m people, which produces 1.1% of the EU\u2019s GDP, would play on the world stage.<\/p>\n

Nearly a dozen rightwing leaders, from Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini to France\u2019s Marine Le Pen, endorsed Orb\u00e1n, praising the path he had blazed in Hungary. \u201cEurope needs Viktor Orb\u00e1n,\u201d Germany\u2019s Alice Weidel, a co-leader of the far-right Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD), tells viewers in the video.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Viktor Orb\u00e1n and JD Vance in Budapest. The US vice-president was in Hungary to support the prime minister.<\/span> Photograph: Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The extent of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s reach was laid bare this week as JD Vance landed in Budapest with his wife, Usha. As he campaigned with Orb\u00e1n, the US vice-president parroted much of Fidesz\u2019s campaign strategy, railing against the EU and taking shots at Ukraine. On Friday, Donald Trump posted<\/a> : \u201cI AM WITH HIM ALL THE WAY!\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the symbol of Orb\u00e1n losing should not be underestimated,\u201d said Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP who has long sounded the alarm on democratic backsliding in Hungary. \u201cHe is the absolute poster boy of this whole movement of the illiberal, anti-European, extreme right. He is the icon and the example that others follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s visit was the culmination of years of precise targeting by Orb\u00e1n, said Dalibor Roh\u00e1\u010d, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. After Orb\u00e1n\u2019s allies cast him as a model for Trump and others, the Hungarian government is alleged to have spent millions of euros on US lobbyists, tasking them with peddling this narrative in Washington.<\/p>\n

Their efforts soon paid off, with people such as Kevin Roberts, the head of the US Heritage Foundation thinktank that produced Project 2025, describing Hungary as the model for conservative statecraft, \u201cOrb\u00e1n kept investing in these relationships and bringing people over,\u201d said Roh\u00e1\u010d.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>A poster in Budapest portrays Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a danger to Hungary.<\/span> Photograph: Jaap Arriens\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Budapest has swiftly become a hub of thinktanks and conferences aimed at amplifying the idea of Hungary, in the words of one local journalist, as a \u201cChristian conservative Disneyland\u201d<\/a> where the global far right feels at home.<\/p>\n

The global veneration has continued even as the country plunged in press freedom rankings<\/a>, faced accusations of no longer being a full democracy<\/a>, and became the most corrupt country in the EU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government cozied up to Vladimir Putin<\/a>, growing more dependent on its crude oil, Budapest acted as a node between Washington and Moscow and offered Maga a jumping-off point to export Christian nationalist and far-right ideology to the rest of Europe.<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s visit was a demonstration of this. While it made headlines around the world, there\u2019s been no indication that it boosted Orb\u00e1n\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Peter Magyar takes a picture with supporters during an election campaign rally in Miskolc.<\/span> Photograph: M\u00e1rton M\u00f3nus\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, momentum seemed to be growing for Magyar. On Thursday evening, his supporters packed the central streets of Gy\u00f6r in north-west Hungary. Images of Hungarian flags prompted comparisons to a March rally in the same town, at which Orb\u00e1n lashed out at demonstrators who booed him, accusing them of being pro-Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

The confidence belies a note of uncertainty that has run through the campaign, as it is anyone\u2019s guess as to whether the opposition surge would be enough to dislodge Fidesz. While the polls suggest a Tisza win, undecided voters and Hungarians abroad could still sway the result, as could the already-swirling claims of vote-buying and gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

In the small city of Kecskem\u00e9t, about 50 miles south of Budapest, many said the campaign had done little to endear them to Magyar. \u201cThere\u2019s a level of palpable anxiety among people,\u201d said Katalin, 81, citing fears that Hungary would be drawn into the war in Ukraine<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the Ukrainian people want a war, but their leader might.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Zsuzsi, 83, in Kecskem\u00e9t fears Hungary would be drawn into the war in Ukraine if the opposition wins.<\/span> Photograph: Zsuzsa Darab\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a thought that made Zsuzci, 83, shake with fear. \u201cAt this point, we can only pray,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m praying to preserve a Christian Hungary. We\u2019ll get dragged into the war in Ukraine if P\u00e9ter Magyar wins and he\u2019ll also let in the migrants \u2013 he does exactly what the European Union tells him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the outcome, it\u2019s clear that Sunday\u2019s vote marks the beginning of a wider reckoning with Hungary\u2019s foray into illiberalism, said K\u00e9sz. \u201cUnder normal circumstances, you lose an election, so what? You go in opposition, you come back in four years. That is a normal democracy, but this is not normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Fidesz\u2019s 16 years in power, the party stacked the state, media and judiciary with loyalists, suggesting that Orb\u00e1n\u2019s system could survive him even if he loses.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven under the ideal circumstances, change will not happen overnight,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you look at the state of the education system, if you look at the state of healthcare, courts, public services, and you name it \u2013 these need to be built up again from scratch. There\u2019s a lot of work to be done by a new government.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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