04/03/2022
In Hungary, Viktor Orbán looked like he was heading for a very tight election contest. For the first time in recent memory, the political opposition unified behind a candidate. The remaining opposition was a more right-wing party, "Our Homeland." The Jobbik party shed its "far-right" reputation in order to join with the Atlanticist coalition to oust Orbán and turn Hungary into a typical member of the European Union — post-national, Open Borders, and governed essentially by NGOs and the United States. "Our Homeland," if anything, threatened Orbán’s coalition. The opposition to Orbán also dug up someone who said he was a conservative Catholic.
The war between Ukraine and Russia changed these calculations. The conventional wisdom was that Orbán would be facing even more opposition, especially as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged Hungary to take sides openly [Hungary accuses Ukraine of interfering in upcoming election, by Justin Spike, Associated Press, March 30, 2022]. Well, Hungary did, but probably not in the way President Zelenskyy wanted.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared victory in general elections after partial results gave his Fidesz party a big lead — and called Ukraine’s President Zelensky an "opponent" in his victory speech.
With 94% of votes counted, the right-wing Fidesz had 53%.
An opposition alliance led by Peter Marki-Zay was far behind with 35%.
"This was a huge victory," Mr Orban told supporters in the capital Budapest.
"They can see it from the Moon, but certainly from Brussels as well."
The president added: "We never had so many opponents," citing "Brussels bureaucrats … the international mainstream media, and finally the Ukrainian president".
[Hungary election: Nationalist PM Viktor Orban claims victory, BBC, April 3, 2022]
The heartbroken English-speaking media consistently calls Hungary’s Prime Minister an "authoritarian" and a threat to democracy even though he seems to be pretty popular.
Hungary’s authoritarian leader and longtime Russian ally, Viktor Orban, has declared victory in the country’s parliamentary elections, clinching a fourth consecutive term in power.
Orban’s Fidesz party had a commanding lead with 71% of the votes counted, Hungary’s national elections board said on Sunday evening.
The election campaign was dominated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which put Orban’s lengthy association with Russian President Vladimir Putin under scrutiny. In his victory speech, Orban called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky one of the “opponents” he had to overcome during the campaign.
[Viktor Orban, Hungary’s authoritarian leader, calls Zelensky an 'opponent' after winning reelection, by Rob Picheta and Balint Bardi, CNN, April 3, 2022]
The AP makes sure to frame Hungary as "pro-Putin" in its headline. However, it at least recognizes that Hungary’s stance on the war helped the government.
With around 91% of votes tallied, Orban’s Fidesz-led coalition had won 53%, while a pro-European opposition coalition, United for Hungary, had just over 34%, according to the National Election Office.
It appeared possible that Fidesz would win another constitutional majority, allowing it to continue making deep unilateral changes to the Central European nation.
“The whole world has seen tonight in Budapest that Christian democratic politics, conservative civic politics and patriotic politics have won. We are telling Europe that this is not the past, this is the future,” Orban said.
As Fidesz party officials gathered at an election night event on the Danube river in Budapest, state secretary Zoltan Kovacs pointed to the participation of so many parties in the election as a testament to the strength of Hungary’s democracy.
“We have heard a lot of nonsense recently about whether there is democracy in Hungary,” Kovacs said. “Hungarian democracy in the last 12 years has not weakened, but been strengthened.”
The contest had been expected to be the closest since Orban took power in 2010, thanks to Hungary’s six main opposition parties putting aside their ideological differences to form a united front against Fidesz. Voters were electing lawmakers to the country’s 199-seat parliament.
Yet even in his home district, opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay trailed the longtime Fidesz incumbent Janos Lazar by more than 12 points, with more than 98% of the votes counted there. It was a discouraging sign for the prime ministerial candidate who had promised to end to what he alleges is rampant government corruption, raise living standards by increasing funding to Hungary’s ailing health care and schools and mend frayed relations with the country’s Western partners.
[Hungary’s pro-Putin PM Orban claims victory in national vote, by Justin Spike, AP, April 3, 2022]
Of course, Orbán is not "pro-Putin" so much as he is pro-Hungary. Cutting trade with Russia would hurt ordinary Hungarians, as it is about to hurt ordinary Germans [German consumers to be hit by further price hikes in supermarkets, The Local, April 1, 2022]. Hungary’s stance was simply nonintervention.
Nonetheless, that’s enough to be labeled a Russian stooge in today’s climate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, "science," as used by journalists, magically transformed from a mechanism to discover the truth into a static end state that you are supposed to believe in on faith.
Now, "democracy" is changing the same way. Winning the election in Hungary means you are a threat to democracy.
If Hungary really votes overwhelmingly against democracy and for corruption I cannot see why it should be accepted in the EU. Kick it out! https://t.co/Z66yrH6PFb
— Anders Åslund (@anders_aslund) April 3, 2022
NATO also got a black eye, fittingly enough, from Serbia.
Overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, elections on Sunday in Hungary and Serbia appear to have extended the tenures of Europe’s two most Kremlin-friendly leaders, both populist strongmen fortified by their overwhelming control of the media and cheap energy from Russia.
With more than 60 percent of the votes counted in Hungary, preliminary results indicated that Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, and already Europe’s longest serving leader, had won a fourth consecutive term despite accusations by the opposition that he has enabled Russia’s military onslaught by cozying up for years to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia …
President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia, also Moscow-friendly, has governed Serbia since 2012, and was expected to win re-election after rallying his nationalist and pro-Russian base by refusing to join the European Union in imposing sanctions on Russia. Serbia hopes to become a member of the European bloc, but its application has stalled.
An unusually high turnout in Serbia of nearly 60 percent forced officials to keep polling stations open late into the evening in some areas. Amid complaints of foul play by the opposition, the central election commission in Belgrade, the capital, said it would not issue results until Monday morning.
But exit polls indicated that Mr. Vucic would win a new term as president and that his Serbian Progressive Party would retain its hold on Parliament, albeit with a reduced majority.
[Pro-Putin Leaders in Hungary and Serbia Set to Win Re-election, by Andrew Higgins and Benjamin Novak, New York Times, April 3, 2022]
Suddenly, it’s legitimate and good to question the results of elections again and to complain about media bias. Again, notice that spin, "pro-Putin." Not wanting to bankrupt your country and/or start World War III over a foreign border dispute is all it takes.
If that’s what "democracy" means these days, count me out. Whatever journos think "democracy" means, it certainly has nothing to do with election results or people governing themselves.
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