Despite his control over all the levers of the state and the media, Orban, Hungary’s strongman—unshakable for 16 years and a model for the European far right—has just been ousted from power after suffering a crushing electoral defeat this Sunday.

This defeat is also a defeat for Trump, who threw his full weight behind Orban’s campaign by sending his right-hand man, JD Vance, to support him. It’s a defeat for Putin, who had made Orban one of his most loyal allies. And it’s a defeat for all far-right politicians who, like Le Pen, held Orban up as a role model.

This defeat was possible because millions of working-class voters turned out, in cities and rural areas alike, to reject Orbán. And contrary to what we hear, most workers, employees, technicians and artisans did not do so in the name of abstract democratic principles, nor to strengthen the European Union against Putin or Trump.

They rejected Orban because he plunged them deeper into the economic crisis. In four years, prices have risen by 40% and the purchasing power of the working class has collapsed. In contrast, money has flowed freely into the business world amid high-profile corruption scandals, with Orban showering his cronies with favors.

A vote of rejection...

Discontent has been expressed through the ballot box. If it goes no further than that and remains purely electoral, nothing fundamental will change for the working class. Peter Magyar, Orban’s successor, is a former leader of his party, Fidesz—an insider who is just as conservative and anti-immigrant. Because he claims to support the European Union, unlike Orban, he is described as the “Hungarian Macron”. This means workers have nothing to expect from him!

The masses who voted for him hoping for a better life will soon be disappointed. And this is all the more true as the whole world is mired in war and sinking into an increasingly severe crisis from which Hungary will not escape any more than we will here.

To defend its interests in this period of crisis, big business is becoming more ruthless and brutal. Behind all the wars being waged lies the hidden yet constant war between the bourgeoisie and the working class. And this holds true in every country in the world. So, in Hungary, the election winners deserve no more trust from the workers than Orban did. The one who will strike them may have the face of the ideal son-in-law, but he is no less an enemy.

… and an encouragement to mobilize

The fact that anger was expressed at the polls and Orban was ousted should encourage workers to mobilize because the only way to advance their interests is to take a stand on social issues—against inflation, and in support of jobs and wages.

In Hungary as here, the working class mustn’t place its fate in the hands of this or that politician but must aim to take action itself to weigh on politics.

The Hungarian working class has demonstrated its capacity to fight back and organize in the past. In 1956, it led a revolution against the dictatorship imposed by the Stalinist regime in power in the USSR. Those who refer to this revolution today tend to oversimplify it saying that “the Hungarians wanted to kick out the Russians.” But it was much more than that!

The workers had elected workers’ councils in the factories, not to restore the bosses and capitalism but to run society themselves. They demanded the right to strike, freedom of association, recognition of the councils and the withdrawal of the Russian army, the regime’s main support. They wanted an end to the police state and recognition of the government of Imre Nagy, whom they supported.

To achieve this, they took up arms, organized workers’ militias, stormed police stations and resisted the Soviet tanks sent against them. In doing so, for several weeks they not only fought for a genuine democratic workers’ power, they brought it to life.

With this rich history, Hungarian workers are not doomed to be pawns in the game played by politicians — each as corrupt as the next — they too can write history.

Will this electoral protest be followed by a struggle led by the working class? That is what we can hope for most of all—for all of us!

Nathalie Arthaud