The scale of Viktor Orbán’s victory in the Hungarian election overnight has taken even his supporters by surprise. Against many predictions, Orbán has actually improved his position: he has retained for his Fidesz party the two-thirds parliamentary majority necessary to override certain constitutional challenges to change a number of constitutional rules. Progressive opinion, in and out of Brussels, is not difficult to gauge. This is an unfair victory in a gerrymandered electoral system by someone who used an inflated media influence to trounce his opponent Péter Márki-Zay, who called for close EU co-operation and an increase in anti-Putin zeal. It shows Hungary as unconcerned with the rule of law. As a result it isolates Hungary, alienating it not only from the EU but from the other Visegrad states (Poland, Czechia and Slovakia), who want tougher moves against Putin; only last week, it is worth remembering, those states pulled out of a projected Visegrad meeting in Budapest over precisely that issue.
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