EDITORIAL

by Peter Jukes

Enough is Enough

Though it may take time to fully percolate through to London and Washington, the resounding defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the Hungarian elections suggests the tide is turning after a 10-year surge of chaotic politics across Europe and the US. 

Orbán, scourge of globalists and champion of what he called the “illiberal state” in a 2014 speech, has been at the centre of a global movement of xenophobic national populism, funnelling money from Hungarian taxpayers and Russian oil imports into institutions in the US and the UK.

His importance as a central node in the international right-wing populist network can be seen by the ultimately fruitless support he gained from figures as far afield as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Marine Le Pen, Leader of France’s National Rally; US President Donald Trump; and, of course, US Vice President JD Vance, who paid a last-minute campaign visit and has, somewhat ironically, complained of “foreign interference” from Brussels.

Above all, Orbán was a crucial ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, blocking EU loans to Ukraine, and supported by the entire Kremlin disinformation apparatus.