All posts tagged: Orbáns

Orbán’s exit leaves Israel exposed in Europe – POLITICO

Orbán’s exit leaves Israel exposed in Europe – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The push to ramp up pressure on Israel is in focus this week as the EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas presides over a meeting of the Global Alliance for a Two-State Solution as well as at a gathering of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Ministers are expected to raise the subject of West Bank sanctions and the Association Agreement — although one EU diplomat from a mid-sized EU country and the EU official quoted above said that countries might avoid moving ahead in deference to peace talks between Israel and Lebanon. Tensions ramp up The push to revisit sanctions comes as EU leaders intensify their criticism of Israel over its actions in Lebanon and over a controversial law, backed by Netanyahu, that authorizes the death penalty for terrorists from the Palestinian territories. Kallas blasted the bill — which comes ahead of Israeli elections due later this year — as a “grave regression,” in a statement issued on behalf of the bloc on March 31. Germany, France and the United Kingdom also warned that the law …

The Clubs in Hungary That Helped Lead to Orbán’s Defeat

The Clubs in Hungary That Helped Lead to Orbán’s Defeat

Published by José Betancourt

In the days after Donald Trump won his second term, I called a handful of Hungarian political analysts to ask what the American future might look like. My impulse was not an original one; the analysts had been fielding many calls of this sort. Hungary seemed like a bellwether for the illiberal direction in which Trump said he was going to lead the United States. Over his decade and a half reign, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had rigged the electoral and legislative systems for his party’s benefit, come to control (directly or indirectly) 80 percent of the country’s media, and hobbled most independent institutions. But when I asked these Hungarians to give it to me straight, they started to tell me another story, about what was happening on “the islands.” The political earthquake that Hungary experienced on Monday, when the party opposing Orbán won two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, was unimaginable a year and a half ago, but there had been smaller, almost imperceptible rumblings of the kind that usually portend profound political change. …

Orbán’s defeat gives me hope for center right – POLITICO

Orbán’s defeat gives me hope for center right – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“You only need to look at Hungary, look at what’s happened to Orbán, to Fidesz. I think that if you’re unable to deliver growth, whatever your ideology is, it will lose,” she added. Badenoch’s Conservative Party slumped to its worst-ever result in the 2024 U.K. general election after 14 years in power, and is struggling to regain ground as Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing Reform UK surges in the polls. Vincenzo Alex But Badenoch said the rise of Magyar, who she described as “very much of the right, in some places even tougher,” shows traditional center-right economics and ideology is “reasserting itself.” Complacency has been “eating at the heart of all of Western Europe,” Badenoch said, describing it as “Europe’s biggest disease.” She singled out former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for particular criticism. “I think there was a lot of complacency. That invitation to a million Syrian migrants to Germany was one of the reasons why people became more skeptical about the European Union project. It was one the triggers for Brexit,” she added. Source link

Orbán’s defeat is a defeat for Christian nationalism

Orbán’s defeat is a defeat for Christian nationalism

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Like the journalist Lincoln Steffens, who, after visiting the Soviet Union in 1919, wrote, “I have seen the future, and it works,” America’s Christian nationalists saw the future working in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. Take Tucker Carlson, for example. Interviewing Orbán a year ago, he said, “I don’t mind sucking up: I think there’s a reason you’re the longest-serving leader in Europe. I think history, for all the criticism you’ve taken, will (vindicate you).” And then on Sunday, Orbán was overwhelmingly rejected by Hungarian voters. So what was the “illiberal Christian democracy” on the Danube of which their prime minister liked to speak during his 16 years in office? It rested on a pillar of opposition to immigration, construed as maintaining Hungary for ethnic Hungarians — an ideal created historically as the result of, well, settler colonialism on the part of Magyar nomads from east of the Urals. The ideal was enshrined in 2011 via a rewriting of the country’s Fundamental Law (i.e. constitution) that declared, “We hold that the protection of our identity …

Viktor Orbán’s Loss Was Also a Defeat for MAGA

Viktor Orbán’s Loss Was Also a Defeat for MAGA

Published by Daniella Wilson

Viktor Orbán’s loss in yesterday’s election is just as much a defeat for Donald Trump and his vice president, J. D. Vance, as it is for the now-toppled Hungarian strongman. Seldom have American leaders intervened so overtly in a foreign election, and seldom has their preferred candidate fared so badly. Trump has a way of distancing himself from people who disappoint him. Last night, when reporters asked him about the outcome in Hungary, he turned and walked away. But having tied himself so tightly to Orbán, he may find it unusually difficult to dissociate himself from the prime minister’s downfall. Red Make America Great Again caps and other pro-Trump symbols saturated Orbán’s campaign rallies. But the opposition party—led by Péter Magyar, a conservative who had deserted Orbán’s inner circle—opted for different imagery: The euphoric crowds that occupied the streets of Budapest to welcome the end of the prime minister’s 16-year reign featured fireworks, flags, face paint, and plum brandy. And along the banks of the Danube, the Hungarian tricolor mingled with the emblem of the …

Photos: Hungarians Cheer Orbán’s Loss

Photos: Hungarians Cheer Orbán’s Loss

Published by José Betancourt

Reuters A drone view shows people gathering to celebrate across the River Danube from the Parliament building, following the partial results of the parliamentary election, in Budapest, Hungary, on April 12, 2026. Denes Erdos / AP A man waves a Hungarian flag as he celebrates in the streets after the announcement of partial results of the Hungarian parliamentary election in Budapest on April 12, 2026. Jakub Porzycki / Reuters Péter Magyar, the Tisza-party candidate for Hungarian prime minister, greets supporters in Budapest after he won the parliamentary election on April 12, 2026. Attila Husejnow / SOPA Images / Reuters Supporters of the Tisza party hold up glowing torches and light tubes during an election-night rally in Budapest on April 12, 2026. Denes Erdos / AP Young supporters celebrate in Budapest early on April 13, 2026, after Péter Magyar’s Tisza party defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in the country’s parliamentary elections. Jaap Arriens / Sipa USA / Reuters Revelers are seen in the streets of Budapest on April 13, 2026, as thousands gathered after …

Von der Leyen waits just 17 minutes to celebrate Orbán’s heavy defeat – POLITICO

Von der Leyen waits just 17 minutes to celebrate Orbán’s heavy defeat – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber, to which the victorious Tisza opposition party belongs, also couldn’t contain his glee at Orbán’s defeat. Orbán’s populist-nationalist Fidesz party left the center-right EPP group in 2021 to join the far-right Patriots for Europe. “Tonight is the victory of the people of Hungary!” Weber wrote. “They confirm that our centre-right, people-first politics win elections.”  “Substance. Solutions. Unity — not empty slogans and fears,” he added.  Orbán’s 16-year reign ended Sunday night with a landslide victory for the center-right opposition, led by Magyar, who is on track to win around two-thirds of the 199 seats in Budapest’s parliament.  Many of the political reactions to Orbán’s loss focused on what his defeat would mean for Europe, after years in which he thwarted EU unanimity on matters such as aid for Ukraine while barracking Brussels for tougher migration rules and nationalist policies. “Hungary’s place is at the heart of Europe,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola wrote.  French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Magyar: “Together, let us advance a more sovereign Europe, for the security of our continent, our competitiveness, and our democracy.” Source …

Orbán’s 16-year rule over Hungary ends in crushing election defeat – POLITICO

Orbán’s 16-year rule over Hungary ends in crushing election defeat – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Orbán conceded, with tears in his eyes, saying: “However it turned out, we will serve our country and the Hungarian nation from the opposition.” If the current margin of victory holds, Magyar will secure a supermajority in parliament that will allow him to unravel key features of Orbán’s “illiberal democracy” — demolishing the prime minister’s tight control over the judiciary, state companies and the media. Orbán’s departure will come as a huge relief to the EU, whose systemic weaknesses he has exposed and exploited for years, most recently by helping Putin block €90 billion of European support to Ukraine. A gleeful European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced: “Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight.” A heavy loss for the Hungarian premier will also deliver a painful blow to Trump’s MAGA movement, which has viewed Hungary’s prime minister as a talismanic trailblazer for its own brand of anti-immigrant, Christian-oriented nationalism.   Brussels officials have long accused Orbán of undermining key pillars of Hungarian democracy — from the judiciary to the media — and …