Article published on Democracy Seminar

It is hard to miss the revolutionary character of the April 12 parliamentary election in Hungary. The international community watched the event anxiously as Viktor Orbán’s sixteen-year-long reign had turned Hungary into an electoral autocracy, a client-state and Trojan horse of Putin within the European Union, one of the poorest and most corrupt member states of the EU, and the standard bearer (and generous financer) of a global right-wing populist movement. As news of the crushing defeat of the Hungarian autocrat was released, a wave of relief spread across the international community. As the first images emerged about the post-election mass celebrations on the streets of Budapest – people dancing, crying with joy, singing everywhere through the night – cautious relief gave way to euphoria. All major global news outlets reported the events as leading news, with reason. The aftermath of a successful revolution typically looks like this.

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