Yes, and various institutions are packed with Orbán men - a few years ago a supreme court justice (iirc) apologized to Orbán after slapping Fidesz with a symbolic fine for breaching election campaign rules, literally groveling in public. It’s definitely possible that the new government is going to have it’s hands tied behind its back. But I don’t think it’s a given that Orbán can maintain loyalty among his people once his hand is off the money spigot.
But yeah, I don’t want to give the impression that I’m super optimistic about this. Magyar’s positions on Israel and Russia are same and worse, respectively. But domestically, I think it would be out of touch to blame the Hungarian working class for celebrating that their public and EU funds might now find more productive use than solely lining the pockets of a handful of kleptocrats. Don’t get me wrong - all liberal governments do this to some extent, but there are levels to this.
Yes, and various institutions are packed with Orbán men - a few years ago a supreme court justice (iirc) apologized to Orbán after slapping Fidesz with a symbolic fine for breaching election campaign rules, literally groveling in public. It’s definitely possible that the new government is going to have it’s hands tied behind its back. But I don’t think it’s a given that Orbán can maintain loyalty among his people once his hand is off the money spigot.
But yeah, I don’t want to give the impression that I’m super optimistic about this. Magyar’s positions on Israel and Russia are same and worse, respectively. But domestically, I think it would be out of touch to blame the Hungarian working class for celebrating that their public and EU funds might now find more productive use than solely lining the pockets of a handful of kleptocrats. Don’t get me wrong - all liberal governments do this to some extent, but there are levels to this.
I’ll trust your judgement on this.