Hungary Avoided Democratic Collapse. Can We?
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
The New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Péter Magyar, the new Prime Minister of Hungary, whom Marantz recently interviewed for the magazine. Marantz tells Foggatt about how Magyar defeated the longtime incumbent, Viktor Orbán—despite intervention by Donald Trump and his allies, and Orbán’s extensive influence over the Hungarian media—and why many Hungarians, after years of democratic backsliding and alleged corruption, ultimately turned against their deeply entrenched leader. Foggatt and Marantz also explore the challenges of governing after authoritarianism without reproducing its abuses of power, and whether Hungary’s political transition offers lessons for other democracies confronting illiberal movements.
This week’s reading:
- “Péter Magyar Led Hungarians out of Autocracy. Where Will He Take Them Now?,” by Andrew Marantz
- “Why Spain Is Standing Up to Donald Trump,” by Ishaan Tharoor
- “Why Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Dedicated a Golden Statue to the President,” by Isaac Chotiner
- “The Art of the Ceasefire,” by Sudarsan Raghavan
- “Rumors of Instability in Moscow,” by Joshua Yaffa
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The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week.
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| 0:00.0 | If you're a fan of the political scene podcast from The New Yorker, I hope you'll join us for a special live taping of the show at 92 NY in Manhattan. |
| 0:10.3 | We'll be talking about Donald Trump's falling approval numbers, the prospects of a comeback for the Democratic Party in the midterms, and the potential threats to the election that are coming directly from the president himself. |
| 0:23.0 | I hope you can join me, Evan Osnos, and my colleagues Susan Glasser and Jane Mayer on June 4th at 7 p.m. |
| 0:30.6 | Ticket information at 92NY.org. |
| 0:44.6 | Thank you. org. Hey, Andrew. |
| 0:45.5 | Thank you, Tyler. |
| 0:46.9 | Still a little jet-liked, but glad to be back. |
| 0:48.9 | I appreciate you taking the time. |
| 0:51.0 | So you recently managed to get one of the few foreign interviews with Peter Maggiar, the man who |
| 0:57.3 | just won an election over Victor Orban in Hungary and was just sworn in as prime minister a few days |
| 1:03.7 | ago. What were your impressions of him? Like, does it seem as though Hungary is now entering a completely |
| 1:09.7 | new era? Like, are they out of the woods? |
| 1:12.6 | So they're definitely entering a new era. |
| 1:14.6 | Not sure they're out of the woods. |
| 1:16.6 | Yeah, it was interesting. |
| 1:18.6 | You know, I put a bunch of this in the piece, the kind of, you know, |
| 1:22.6 | machinations and negotiations behind how I got the interview, |
| 1:25.6 | because I think it's relevant to this precise |
| 1:27.8 | question. Like, how much are things changing? He is very much unlike Victor Orban in ways we can |
| 1:35.3 | get into. He comes out of the old Orban machinery and kind of became an internal whistleblower |
| 1:41.0 | and kind of led this movement out of that era, which was an incredibly |
| 1:44.9 | formidable, difficult task, and kind of no one thought he could do it. |
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