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Dear John,

Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister, has lost.

After sixteen years in power, after rewriting the constitution, warping the electoral map, packing institutions and turning much of the media into propaganda machinery, Orbán has been defeated.

It matters far beyond Hungary.

For years, Orbán has been a model for the authoritarian right. A politician who showed how you can keep the appearance of democracy while hollowing out much of its substance.

There have still been election. The courts still exist. There are newspapers and independent polls. But the system is bent further and further in favour of one party and one man.

His defeat is shows that this kind of politics is not inevitable. Nor is it permanent.

That should give democrats everywhere real encouragement. Not just in Hungary, but in Britain, across Europe, and in the United States.

Orbán was a model for Nigel Farage and Reform UK. He was admired by Europe’s far-right. And he had become a role model for parts of Trump’s movement in America as well.

JD Vance was in Budapest backing him just days before the vote. Donald Trump himself praised him. The message was clear, that the authoritarian right works across borders, cheering each other on and trying to prove that this is the future.

Hungary has just shown that it’s not.

But there is another lesson here that we should pay close attention to. It’s much harder to rebuild a democracy than to protect one before it’s captured.

Orbán’s successor now inherits a country where institutions have been bent out of shape over many years. Undoing that damage will take time. It will take political will. And it will take a government actively trying to restore fairness, accountability and trust.

That is why this result should not make us complacent. It should make us more determined. Britain is not Hungary, but that does not mean we are immune.

We already have a voting system that can hand huge power to a party on a minority of the vote. We already have weak enough safeguards that opaque money and outside influence can move through politics with too little scrutiny. And we already have a political movement in Reform UK that attacks institutions, undermines trust, and openly admires parts of Orbán’s model.

So the lesson from Hungary is not just that democracy can fight back. It is that we should not wait until our institutions are under far greater strain before we strengthen them.

That means fairer voting. It means stronger protections against dark money and foreign interference. It means action on disinformation. And it means democratic reform that gives people a real stake in how they are governed.

That is exactly what we are working for. We want a political system where power is more accountable, where money cannot quietly buy influence, and where voters can trust that democracy belongs to them rather than to the loudest demagogue or the richest donor.

Hungary’s result is a line in the sand. Authoritarianism is not inevitable, but nor is democracy self-sustaining.

If we want to keep it strong in Britain, we have to defend it now.

Thank you for standing with us.

All the best,

Conor McKenzie

Digital Engagement Manager, Open Britain

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