Peter Magyar’s victory will keep Hungary in the spotlight

VIKTOR ORBAN, Hungary’s corpulent prime minister, revelled in his role as the champion of the growing band of populist nationalists in Europe and beyond. Only days before a general election on April 12th, America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, visited Hungary to proclaim that a vote for Mr Orban was a vote for Western civilisation.

Mr Orban’s crushing defeat in that election was a rebuke to the veep’s arrant nonsense. But it also means that the election’s triumphant—and solidly conservative—winner, Peter Magyar, will be seized on by centrists and progressives as a case study in how to reverse democratic decay.

One conclusion is that nothing turns the page like an overwhelming victory. After years of chipping away at Hungary’s independent institutions, Mr Orban could have aped Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Donald Trump of America by contesting a close result. In the event, with his Fidesz party on track to win just 40% of the votes and 56 seats, compared with 52% and 137 seats for Mr Magyar and Tisza, the Budapest bulldozer had the grace to concede promptly.

Mr Magyar will now command a two-thirds majority in the parliament, just as Fidesz did. That gives him the legal power to amend the constitution, unless the president risks voters’ anger by vetoing every amendment. During 16 years in charge, Mr Orban jammed Fidesz into every corner of the state. The party controls the supreme and constitutional courts. Its allies own most of the broadcast, online and print media. It has apparatchiks throughout the civil service, in state-owned companies and the education system.

A second conclusion is that voters are more susceptible to arguments about corruption and economic competence than to warnings about inchoate tyranny. On the campaign trail, Mr Magyar never tired of pointing out to Hungarians how Mr Orban and his cronies were making out like bandits. And that is precisely because they were bandits. Rigged public contracts, favours from regulators under Fidesz’s thumb and the diversion of European Union subsidies all fattened the wallets of those favoured by Mr Orban.

Voters want Mr Magyar to restore the rule of law, revive Hungary’s economy and eradicate corruption and the crooks who benefit from it. Because the Fidesz machine could yet hinder his ability to govern, Mr Magyar should be ruthless in dismantling its controls. He must also act quickly. Poland, which voted in a new government in 2023, has demonstrated how hard it can be to repair the damage caused by years of populist rule.

But Mr Magyar must also be magnanimous in the reconstruction that follows. Tisza did not win its victory alone. Nearly all the other opposition groups in Hungary—conservative, liberal and leftist—laid down their standards to unite behind Mr Magyar. They need to share in the new Hungary, too.

A third conclusion is that nobody likes foreign interference. That applies to Mr Vance, who warned of the malign intentions of bureaucrats from Brussels only to find that meddlers from MAGA are not wildly popular, either. But it also applies to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, who has courted Hungary with cheap energy and special favours, and to China’s president, Xi Jinping, who has seen Hungary as a gateway to Europe. By rejecting Russian and American efforts to influence their votes, a majority showed that they want to belong in that least fashionable sphere of influence, the EU.

The responsibility for putting all this right falls upon the new leader. Mr Magyar remains something of a mystery. He defected from Mr Orban’s camp only two years ago. As a campaigner, he was extraordinary, criss-crossing the country to hold rallies against Fidesz and unite a broad coalition behind Tisza.

In office, he deserves help. Now that Hungarians have elected a government bound to abide by the law, Europe should quickly unlock the billions of euros it has withheld from the country. That might seem like another form of foreign interference, but Hungary freely decided to become an EU member and to follow its rules. Mr Magyar has an awesome task ahead. Liberals everywhere will be rooting for him. ■