Goodbye and good riddance!

Who Viktor Orban is was clear back in 2011. When he began his first attacks on his critics it was obvious where his reign was going.

First, he attacked the human rights and anti-corruption associations as well as independent journalists. I remember colleagues from Hungarian associations who back then began to report to us about police raids on their premises. After that, he went on to attack the independent judiciary and universities, and fueled his radical narrative of fear on which he won elections with hatred of the underprivileged: from LGBTIQ people to migrants.

In the next 16 years, with his autocratic rule, he managed to destroy and humiliate Hungary. Along the way, he had many friends on the right political spectrum, even in Croatia. It is easy to recall what all political options admired him, associations cooperated with his regime.

Yesterday his autocracy came to an end. It will not be easy to recover the country, and TISZA will be under a large magnifying glass - the question remains open whether it is ready to truly return democracy to Hungary.

Two lessons I carry with me from this sixteen year long agony of our neighboring country:

1. When the party in power begins to attack associations, journalists, the university and the judiciary, there is a good chance that the country will slip into an autocracy that will bring no economic or social prosperity to the people. On the contrary, it will increase poverty and isolation of the country.

2. It is not easy to get out of an autocratic regime because it is in its nature to capture institutions that represent power-balancing insurers. The fact that Hungary is still in the EU after all probably helped bring down the autocratic regime in regular elections (similar happened in Poland). For regimes outside the EU (Belarus, Serbia), overthrowing autocracy democratically is much more challenging.

Congratulations to my colleague Péter Hungarian on the election victory. As the current MEP, he will leave the European Parliament and become the Prime Minister of Hungary.

And my biggest hugs go out to all those in Hungary who have been humiliated, subverted, unjustly arrested, intimidated and impoverished by Orban in the last 16 years. Your time has finally come.

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