Anita Zsurzsán is an independent scholar based in Budapest.
Far-right candidate Călin Georgescu pulled ahead in the first round of Romania’s presidential election last Sunday. His denunciation of “globalists” and the European Union is more rhetoric than practical program, but it resonated with many crisis-hit voters.
Far-right Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán has claimed that his refusal to help Ukraine is a “pro-peace position.” Yet Hungary is also the only EU state that openly backs an Israeli attack on Rafah — showing the hypocrisy of Orbán’s supposed pacifism.
Upon G. M. Tamás’s death last month, even many laudatory obituaries claimed that he marked the endpoint of Hungary’s Marxist traditions. But Marxism isn’t dead in Hungary.
Hungary’s election was always going to be an uphill battle in the face of incumbent Viktor Orbán’s overweening power. But the opposition’s lack of a clear alternative meant it ran simply as an anti-Orbán front — and it failed to mobilize voters.
Sunday’s Hungarian election will decide if far-right premier Viktor Orbán can continue his already decade-long rule. A united opposition damns Orbán for his lawbreaking and ties to Vladimir Putin — yet has struggled to articulate an alternative of its own.