Orbán defeat is hugely significant for Hungary, says Cork-based professor

A Hungarian professor at University College Cork (UCC) has said the end of the 16-year rule of Viktor Orbán is a hugely significant moment for Hungary as a nation.

Mr Orbán, an autocratic leader and a close ally of both US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin, lost by a decisive margin in the vote held on Sunday in what was the highest turnout in Hungary’s democratic history.

The new prime minister, Péter Magyar, a pro-European reformer, has promised to deliver a fundamental transformation in the political culture of Hungary.

Arpad Szakolczai, emeritus professor of sociology at UCC, told The Echo that the result of the election clearly highlighted the demand for change among Hungarian people.

Expanding on why Hungarians voted for change, Mr Szakolczai said: “The number one problem, I think, was corruption. The second was arrogance. 

"I know these Fidesz [the political party led by Viktor Orbán] people for 35 years. They were arrogant 35 years ago, and I can imagine how arrogant they became now that for 16 years they were ruling. The third problem was authoritarianism, which Hungarians don’t like.”

Mr Szakolczai said elections in Hungary were decided on internal political reasons and had very little to do with the external global politics which Orbán was trying to lead.

“The major pro-family nation-oriented policies, I think it will be kept,” he said. 

“Not authoritarian. But having a conservative, tradition-oriented view and not a support of this extreme liberalism, which is sweeping Europe. Certainly he [Orbán] failed because he wanted to divert attention away from the internal problems of himself and his party.

“Playing the game of an international political leader didn’t work. Hungarians said you can jump up and down with Trump, Vance, and Putin. But what we care about is what did you do with us at home. That is what the national election should be.

“Hungarians will always be conservative and nation-oriented. It is just that the kind of policies which Orbán was doing, it is with the profile of an arrogant, authoritarian government, pro-Russian and corrupt, that is what people didn’t want.”

Elaborating on what the new leader is set to bring to Hungary, Mr Szakolczai feels that his election is an opportunity for change rather than what the leader himself is promising.

“The interesting thing if you read the news about Hungary and especially in Hungarian, it is not the person of the leader that matters that much,” he said.

“So I think this person will be just an interim person. The real question is whether after Orbán and this person, there will be a proper conservative leader in Hungary that people would support.”