TechAltar7h ago

Fidesz' massive defeat comes despite:
- multiple active Russian disinformation campaigns
- the US government actively supporting Fidesz
- Fidesz owning the majority of TV & radio stations + newspapers
- Fidesz having gerrymandered the crap out of the country
- many documented cases of voter suppression & paying disinfrenchised voters for support
- Fidesz pouring unprecedented $$$ into their campaign

Feeling a little proud of my country for the first time in a while 🇭🇺

Show threadClemens7h ago
@Techaltar Do you have a theory on what's going on with the mail votes going 90%/8% for FIDESZ/TISZA on https://vtr.valasztas.hu/ogy2026/orszagos-listak?tab=partlistak&filter=orszagos-eredmenyek? That feels suspect given the rest of the results so far.
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Show threadÁron6h ago
@neverpanic @Techaltar It's not, mail votes are only from ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries
Show threadInc Hulk 🧪6h ago
@aronkvh @neverpanic @Techaltar True! Ethnic Hungarians are allowed postal votes, but the massive numbers of expats across the EU were denied postal votes (they tend to be anti-Orban, escaping the oppressive regime).
Show threadJon5h ago
@IncHulk @aronkvh @neverpanic @Techaltar what fraction of Hungarian expats are not Ethnic Hungarians? I had not realized there was a lot of internal diversity there.
Show threadInc Hulk 🧪5h ago
@oddhack @aronkvh @neverpanic @Techaltar The term ethnic Hungarians usually refers to the Hungarian population who were in the 2/3 of the area of Hungary given to other countries at the end of WW1 by the treaty made mainly by the French & British victors. In those areas, schools & churches all spoke Hungarian for many decades after the division. Orban gave votes to all these ethnic Hungarians (who had never lived in the current land of Hungary).
Show threadJon4h ago

@IncHulk @aronkvh @neverpanic @Techaltar wow, I have learned something - thanks!

Giving voting rights to your own citizens who live abroad is a far stretch from this. I wonder to what degree eventually reclaiming that territory, as Orban was pushing for in Ukraine, was a part of this policy. Visiting the national museum in Budapest, I got a small sense of how traumatizing the first half of the 20th century must have been for Hungarian identity.

Show threadTitia Schuurman3h ago

@oddhack @IncHulk @aronkvh @neverpanic @Techaltar I visited the Budapest city museum (I think) 30 years ago, and I remember the exhibition explaining how, after that loss of big parts of the country, the capital city was like a huge head sitting on a too small body.

Still, the most vivid memory I retained was how, at some point long ago, a medieval Pope decided to excommunicate the Hungarians for some reason or other. Not wanting to be outdone, the Hungarians in turn excommunicated the Pope. 💪

Show threadJon
@titia one of my memories from several visits to Hungary ca. 2010 was that the capital itself was an interesting mix of (often reconstructed) AH Empire, soulless Communist concrete blocks, and modern, but it felt like a relatively modern city... then I went out to the suburbs to a ballroom dance and things were much more grim. Then taking the train to Vienna, the countryside reminded me of very poor parts of the Former US, like rural Alabama. Crossing into Austria was night and day.
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