Father of European right-wing populism: Viktor Orban.Image: keystone / Petr David Josek
The Hungarian Prime Minister failed because of what populists usually always fail: their incompetence. However, it would be premature to declare a political turnaround with Orban’s demise.
April 18, 2026, 10:06 p.mApril 18, 2026, 10:06 p.m
Remo Hess, Brussels / ch media
After 16 years, the Hungarians have removed their long-term Prime Minister Viktor Orban from office. He simply had nothing left to offer them.
But will Orban’s departure also lead to a turnaround in Europe? After the years-long rise of the radical right, is the pendulum swinging back to the center? This can be doubted.
“Orbanism” failed
Orban failed in Hungary because of what populists, whether right or left, actually always fail: their incompetence. While the healthcare system, the transport network and education collapsed, the head of government was busy with his personal culture war against the EU. In addition, there is a disillusioned youth who are no longer interested in growing up in a state where you can only get ahead if you belong to the right party. “Orbanism” has failed.
For the populist international this is Losing Orban is a setbackbut not a catastrophe. Because Europe’s populists don’t need each other. Their international cooperation has always been a contradiction in terms. It is almost natural that the two nationalists Marine Le Pen in France and Alice Weidel in Germany cannot stand each other.
What populism of all forms needs, however, is a government that it can work through. That’s its core: not being for something, but against something – and as loudly as possible.
Once they are Foreigner. The other time the EU or the large international corporations. Often it is a mixture of everything. But the basic tone is always that there is something fundamentally wrong with this system, in which we live. And therefore a radical change is needed.
Crisis as a permanent condition
That’s not incomprehensible. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA, the West has felt like it has been in a constant state of crisis. With the financial crash of 2008, the corona pandemic and now the war in Ukraine, Europeans have… have already gone through three major economic crises in one generation, as it usually only happened once every 30 years.
Of course, this is reflected in people’s perceptions. Trust in politics has been permanently disrupted. And the future prospects don’t make it any better.
Populism is not the reason, but the indicator of this dissatisfaction. When people feel that the system is no longer worth it for them, they turn against it.
This can be seen more and more clearly in the two core European countries of Germany and France. The system-busting AfD party is now firmly at the top of the polls in Germany. In France, the big showdown is coming in next year’s presidential elections. Governments are wringing their hands in attempts to turn things around. But it just doesn’t work, as the example of Friedrich Merz in Germany shows. He came into office with the promise of getting the economy going again. But the mood is down.
Limited solutions
The crux of the matter for established politics is that it can only do so much against the drivers of discontent. The pandemic swept the world from China. The migration crises have their origins in the political and economic instability in our neighborhood. Russian leader Vladimir Putin forced the war in Ukraine and the associated energy crisis on Europe.
Demonstration in Zurich against the USA’s war on Iran, April 8, 2026.Image: keystone / claudio thoma
But the populists don’t have to worry about any of that. You don’t have to explain politics in an increasingly complex environment. But just castigating the “mainstream” for its supposed failure.
When trust is gone, people become experimental. It is quite possible that the experiment in Germany or France is still ahead of us. Orban may have failed. But his legacy will outlast him.