27 comments

  • biesnecker 14 hours ago

    Good riddance.

  • shevy-java 14 hours ago

    The results were quite clear. About 2/3 voted someone else, roughly. I think this was also the primary reason why Orban congratulated quickly.

  • Scipio_Afri 8 hours ago

    Why is this and all other posts about this flagged?

    • Malcx an hour ago

      https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

      Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

    • jacquesm 7 hours ago

      HN has a large enough MAGA contingent that believes by not talking about it the world will hold off a little longer from bringing down their idol. What happened to Orban could and should happen to Trump. But America is only in year 6 of seeing someone wreck their country, Orban was in year 16. So presumably they still have a bit further to go down before they kick out their Russian stooges.

      Mods have the power to unflag these but don't, usually because they don't see these threads (though, if they really wanted to they could view the 'active' page). It's interesting to see what you can and can not talk about on HN, local US politics (esp. California) is fine, global possibly world changing things are not.

  • tetrisgm 11 hours ago

    Congratulations! Also excellent future for the EU and Ukraine

  • iammjm 14 hours ago

    Big win for democracy. Not even 16 years of Orban and russian-, trumpian-, and technofascist interference could kill it. quite amazing actually

    • stefs 14 hours ago

      yes - i am so relieved. this was a real conundrum for the EU - booting hungary out would have been a huge problem (i.e. opening the door for a russian stronghold right in its mid), but keeping orban in would mean the a) abuse continued and b) it would send a signal to others that this is a winning strategy.

      democracy may suffer from the problem that it allows the election of anti-democratic autocrats but it seems that it's definitely able to come back from the brink, even if the deck's stacked against it. i wonder what message it sends to the other countries.

    • harladsinsteden 14 hours ago

      It almost makes you think there is still some good left in the world.

    • kakacik 14 hours ago

      Certainly an excellent news. What puzzles me that he managed to stay in power for 4 periods, despite behaving very consistently - subverting EU, de facto being russian spy, stealing EU dotations, led Hungary to stagnation. Yet people kept voting him in.

      Exactly same story as just north from it, Fico in Slovakia is a tragedy for that nation and he keeps winning the votes.

      So great news, for now.

    • Markoff 4 hours ago

      Are you aware that Magyar was with Orban until 2024, right? It's funny how some people think he is some amazing change...

  • ChrisArchitect 14 hours ago
  • cantalopes 14 hours ago

    Hell yes

  • pessimizer 14 hours ago

    Not much of a dictatorship if the dictator concedes defeat after an election that was possible for him to lose.

    • stefs 6 hours ago

      His options were limited. Aside from his tirades against the EU, he was completely dependent on it, as it financed half the country – Hungary was the largest per capita recipient of EU funds. This was also the reason why he never seriously attempted to leave the Union.

      He could now take certain steps, such as eliminating press freedom, but election fraud on the scale that would have been necessary to skew this election would have led to sanctions.

    • EGreg 14 hours ago

      True, it's not so much a dictatorship, more like just a certain type of mindset. Shared by Trump, Vance (I guess), Elon, and the AfD party, Le Pen (maybe) and more.

      What do we call this mindset? Right wing authoritarianism? Anti-immigrant sentiment? Poland next door to Hungary is also very anti-immigrant and proud of it (everyone from Duda onwards).

      • matusp 14 hours ago

        Illiberal democracy

  • kolinko 14 hours ago

    "ally of President Trump" -- more like an ally of Putin?

    • layer8 14 hours ago

      One doesn’t exclude the other.

    • kakacik 14 hours ago

      Both. Both are allies too. Are you not watching the news for past decade?

      Also, DJ vance was lobbing for him righr before elections in some local gatherings during his visot few days ago. So much for not interfering.

    • highpost 14 hours ago

      you can be both.

  • oulipo2 14 hours ago

    Good news, now let's rid the rest of Europe and the world of fascists and authoritarians

  • jauntywundrkind 14 hours ago

    Also a right wing former insider of the regime, but one that seemingly is turning has back on the regime authoritarianism & exploitation that has characterized the right's ascent worldwide. At least has shown some backbone, respect, decency, & is tired of the world burners, that believe in their vicious nasty strongmen, who seem intent only on grifting, tearing things down, and inflaming tensions.

    Amazingly frank talk from Peter: https://telex.hu/belfold/2024/02/10/magyar-peter-varga-judit...

    I really appreciate this comedic take from Bluesky:

    > analogy for the America brained is like if the Dems lost to Trump four times in a row and then ran Mitt Romney to save the country and won crazy supermajorities and also Mitt Romney was named Johnny America https://bsky.app/profile/michaelcaley.bsky.social/post/3mjd2...