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What lessons does the defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have for U.S. politics? NPR's Frank Langfitt asked some Hungarian American experts.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Many political analysts agree on this - Orban has been working in Hungary to create what's called a competitive authoritarian system. His administration rewrote electoral rules, among many other things, to tilt the playing field in its favor and ensure his party could remain in power. Lorinc Redei says Orban's defeat shows the limits of that strategy. Redei teaches politics at the University of Texas at Austin.
LORINC REDEI: Dictatorships can really only be brought down by revolution. But competitive authoritarian systems can end simply because there are elections held that are overwhelming enough to turn the tide. I would say that's what happened Sunday.
LANGFITT: Orban is relevant because some U.S. political scientists say President Trump is using a similar playbook. They cite, among other things, his past call for Republicans to run elections in 15 states. Redei says Orban's defeat shows even in a system like Hungary's, populists must remain popular to win.
REDEI: Fundamentally, in a democracy, you can't have the majority of people against you for too long before you lose power.
LANGFITT: Orban was defeated by a former member of his own party named Peter Magyar. Magyar focused on Hungary's economic problems and corruption. He also wrapped his campaign in the Hungarian flag. Julia Sonnevend said Democrats could learn from Magyar on how to build a big-tent coalition. She's a professor of sociology and communications at The New School in New York.
JULIA SONNEVEND: He strategically used a flag in every single event. He traveled around the country in a pickup truck, which was colored with the tricolor. Everywhere he went, he emphasized that national identity and patriotism does not belong to the right wing.
LANGFITT: Magyar also avoided divisive social issues. When Orban tried to ban last year's pride parade in Budapest, Magyar sat it out and kept his coalition together. David Koranyi runs Action for Democracy, a U.S.-based civil society organization. He says Magyar also benefits from his profile as an insider who saw the light.
DAVID KORANYI: He jumped ship, and he recognized that the level of corruption and economic and social mismanagement of the country cannot be tolerated anymore. And he stood by his conservative principles.
LANGFITT: Koranyi says a member of the Trump administration could try to follow this same path in the 2028 presidential race. But Redei, the UT Austin professor, says choosing when to break with a powerful leader is tricky.
REDEI: It's hard to know ahead of time when that window of opportunity is going to close, but it does close. And the higher up you are in a party, the earlier it closes.
LANGFITT: In addition to Hungarian Americans, I reached out to U.S. conservatives. They said people are reading too much into Orban's loss. Matt Schlapp is chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, which has held annual events in Budapest. He pointed out no politician can win forever.
MATT SCHLAPP: When you've been in power 16 years as Viktor Orban has, you know, longer than FDR, the longest-serving democratically elected leader of - in Europe. It was probably asking a little too much to buck that much history.
LANGFITT: And Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, noted that Magyar's win is no victory for the left.
MIKE GONZALEZ: Peter Magyar favors strict anti-immigration policies, national sovereignty, conservative social values.
LANGFITT: But Gonzalez did say that Orban's defeat has a lesson for President Trump - make your case to every part of society and don't get complacent.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News.
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