Has Hungary Reached the Point of No Return?

In this episode, Alex starts by talking about how the atrocities the Russian military committed are coming to light. On Sunday, Ukrainian forces discovered a mass grave in Bucha, a town near Kyiv. There was evidence of rape, executions, and brutality. Zelensky has said that the Russians treated these people worse than animals. Alex then discusses the parliamentary elections that took place in Hungary on Sunday. This election was seen as a last attempt to stop Viktor Orbán from completely consolidating power and getting another term in office. The opposition consisted of six parties ranging from the left to the right, and all feared Hungary’s democratic backsliding. Orbán is an ally of Putin and the opposition tried to control this narrative. Unfortunately, Orbán won the election by a larger majority than first expected and his Fidesz party is likely to control the parliament. Edit Zgut, who is a political scientist at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, predicted that a clear victory for Orban would allow him to move further in an autocratic direction. She said that “Hungary seems to have reached a point of no return, the key lesson is that the playing field is tilted so much that it became almost impossible to replace Fidesz in elections.” Alex worries that Orbán’s playbook will be used by other wannabe dictators and that Hungary may make the Ukraine invasion more complicated. Finally, Alex touches on the French presidential elections which will start next week. Ukraine is also at the forefront of them and according to The Economist, “The average gap between Emmanuel Macron and his rival, the nationalist-populist Marine Le Pen, has narrowed from 13 points on March 15th to seven points two weeks later.”