Viktor Orbán spent a decade rigging Hungary’s electoral field in his favor, yet the people rose up anyway.
Orbán’s loss was part of a hell of a losing streak for JD Vance. The vice president flew to Budapest over the weekend to cast the Hungarian election as integral to saving "Western civilization" from mass migration and the "bureaucrats in Brussels." Instead, Vance watched his idol get crushed in an epic, record-breaking defeat, and then oversaw the failed negotiations over the Iran war.
The moment offers an opportunity to American Democrats: They could point out that right-populist hostility to international alliances and multilateral institutions, both in Hungary and the United States, has proven disastrous.
The Hungarian election may not map neatly onto U.S. politics, but it connects the struggle against Trumpism at home to the battle against autocracy abroad and proves that even a rigged system can’t stop a fed-up public.
Since before World War I, The New Republic has championed democracy, the rule of law, and an embrace of internationalist institutions.
Subscribe today, and join us in the fight for democracy that actually honors human dignity.
