James Thompson

I mean...

As you mentioned, Orban's been a conservative pin-up, sort of been posited as a bit of a defender of Western civilisation.

We saw this insane visit from US Vice President J.D.

Vance just before the election, apparently trying to drum up support for Orban.

I mean, that is just bizarre.

Oh, I don't know.

Imagine if some politician came out in the presidential campaign hustings against Trump, the reaction that there would have been there.

So very bizarre stuff.

But look, I actually think this is less of a new moment and more of an old moment.

We've seen consecutive elections over the last two or three years fought on a couple of key issues.

Inflation, inequality, and you can throw unemployment in there, and immigration.

And really, that's seen a whole bunch of politicians from both sides of politics kicked out around the world and populist leaders installed.

So I don't think we've seen some big swing in Hungarian politics that we can sort of take as a shift from the right to the left.

I think this is just...

Those three big issues, again, are the key things on everyone's minds.

Elections aren't going to be fought on culture wars.

They're going to be fought on bread and butter economic issues.

What does a tank of petrol cost?

What does a litre of milk cost?

Why do I feel like I'm still falling behind the rest of my fellow citizens?