It is a difficult challenge to strike the right balance between articulating clearly that liberal democracy is under acute threat – and needlessly perpetuating the Far Right’s assertions of strength and dominance.

As Viktor Orbán found out on Sunday: Nothing about these people is inevitable.

There is indeed a transnational rightwing assault on democratic pluralism, and we must be alert to the far-right networks and channels of influence that are being created.

But let’s not help them perpetuate the idea that democracy is destined to surrender to the Far Right.

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“Rightwing populism on the rise.” “Liberal democracy in crisis.”

These narratives have dominated the political discussion – and the subjective perception! – on either side of the Atlantic for well over a decade now. The threat is real. But we must not give in to defeatism.

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The transnational right-wing admiration for autocrats like Orbán is a crucial reminder that the struggle over democracy and multiracial pluralism is indeed playing out not just in the United States, and that the reactionary counter-mobilization is an international phenomenon.

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It is hard to overstate how much the American Right has been obsessed with Viktor Orbán – who they believed had figured out how to “stem the tide of global wokeness” by mobilizing the coercive powers of the state against the “globalist” enemy.