After Orbán: Notes from Budapest

This article offers an account of the euphoria occasioned by the victory of Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party in the Hungarian election of 12 April 2026, which ended the 16-year rule of Viktor Orbán and Fidesz, as well as a detailed explanation of events. Three dimensions of Magyar’s victory are considered: the structural dimension, that is the country’s economic, legal and social-psychological degeneration under Orbán that eventually caused the system to collapse under its own weight; the miscalculated electoral campaign of Fidesz, which was characterised by fear mongering; and the charisma of the tireless Magyar, whose personal contact with voters extended to the country’s most remote corners and created the self-fulfilling prophecy that Orbán and Fidesz could be defeated and a functioning Hungary restored. The article ends with a discussion of the possibility that a break-up of Tisza might lead to a renewed multiparty system in Hungary.