On Tuesday this week, the Fidesz party headquarters were raided and the servers seized. Viktor Orbán is now calling for resistance. However, his room for manoeuvre is limited by Péter Magyar’s new government.

The new Prime Minister, Péter Magyar, and his centrist Tisza party have adopted constitutional amendments limiting the length of time a person may serve in government and in the National Assembly.

Orbán claimed that the new government lacks competence and predicted that it would already fail this autumn in the face of high energy prices and energy shortages.

“Fidesz must now operate in a completely different way and serve the national resistance,” he said. (NTB)

Orbán lost because some voters wanted change. However, Magyar has displayed certain authoritarian tendencies that make Orbán look positively mild by comparison. The characterisation of Orbán’s system of government is more aptly applied to Magyar.

Critics accuse the 63-year-old of having built up a hybrid system with authoritarian characteristics, weakened the rule of law, and hollowed out democracy while he was in power.

At the same time, Orbán’s pro-Russian stance and opposition to Ukraine made him deeply unpopular within the EU. (NTB)