The ‘You Can't Make This Stuff Up,' Story Behind Orban's Downfall
How did he do it? How did Peter Magyar defeat Victor Orban in Hungary, even though Orban had 16 years in power to rig the system in his favor?
It’s a huge win for democracy. And it’s also an amazing, largely untold tale that includes a child sex abuse pardon, secret tapes, an acrimonious divorce, and a lot of zebra images.
The only place I’ve seen this story behind the story is economist Paul Krugman’s April 18 Substack newsletter where he interviews constitutional scholar and Hungarian expert Kim Lane Scheppele.
Here’s a condensed version.
Fallout from an Acrimonious Divorce
Magyar joined Orban’s political machine when Orban came to power in 2010. Over the years he moved up the organizational ranks, ultimately becoming Hungary’s representative to the European Union in Brussels. Magyar married another Orban acolyte, Judit Varga, who became justice minister. Her job was to defend Orban’s interests. One of those interests involved pardoning the head of an orphanage whose state employees, it was discovered, sexually abused children. The pardon was so controversial that to redirect the blame, Orban fired her.
According to Scheppele, that happened about the time Magyar and his wife were in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. Here’s how Scheppele describes to Krugman what happened next:
“And that was the moment when Peter Magyar, having just divorced her, popped out of the woodwork and said, ‘How dare Orban hide behind women’s skirts?’ And then he said, ‘And because I was married to her, I know where all the corruption happened, where all the bodies are buried.’
The Secret Tapes Revealed
“And he had, it turns out, made audiotapes of his conversations with his ex-wife during the acrimonious divorce. I mean, that’s why you can’t make it up. I have to tell you this because this is something that’s not really making the headlines in the U.S. but he actually had the tapes through which she had talked about some of the corruption scandals inside the Orban government. And so he pops out, accuses Orban of hiding behind women’s skirts, then goes on this YouTube channel.”
Orban’s opposition had started a YouTube channel as one of the opposition’s only media outlets available after Orban took control of the country’s radio, TV and most major newspapers.
Another way Orban entrenched his hold on power was to change the constitution to give rural areas, where his political strength was anchored, three times the vote in parliament than the more liberal cities. Magyar, parlaying the rock star status he received from the YouTube revelations, spent years taking his corruption message into those rural areas. The strategy worked. In the election, he blunted Orban’s rural base.
The Power of the Zebra Meme
About the zebras.
During the campaign, some anti-corruption campaigners discovered a palace being built outside Budapest allegedly by Orban’s father, next door to an estate of Orban’s best friend who somehow went from blue collar worker to Hungary’s richest man during Orban’s reign. It was the corruption story laid right at Orban’s doorstep. The estate also was home to what’s called a “dazzle” of zebras. The zebras became the popular symbol of Orban’s corruption. Zebra costumes, tee shirts, pins—the works.
Not only does all of this make for a good yarn, the result has important meaning for democracy, for the future of the EU, for aid to Ukraine, and more.
You might say it’s also a road map for those who would like to strip Trump of his stranglehold on power here at home. The corruption message is about as bipartisan as you can get, transcending political parties, age, rural/urban, and issues where most Americans are otherwise deeply divided. Few countenance Trump’s corruption when it’s brought home to them. Trump is providing an extraordinary menu of corrupt acts for his opponents to work with. (More on this next week).
Trump followed the Orban model on the way into power. It’s likely he’ll also have an opportunity to follow it on the way out. Even without the zebras.
Always Get It’s Always Something
Sign up to get the most recent column set to your inbox for free.
What happens when a fun-loving, charismatic, reform-minded Mexican-American billionairess becomes president of the United States and strikes fear in the pocketbooks of a cabal of the rich and powerful?