The Observer.

Hello, it's Ada here, and you're listening to the Slow Newscast Extra, a new show every Thursday about a story we just can't stop thinking about.

And this week, I've been thinking about the election results in Hungary, which surprised me. After 16 years of rule, Victor Orban has been voted out of office.

That's despite years of gerrymandering and smear campaigns against his main opponent,

who's now the new Prime Minister, Peter Majar.

But while the tactics Orban developed may have fallen short in seeing him through to a fifth

successive term, the past decade and a half have seen him build a soft power network arguably

unrivaled in Europe. As Peter Majar seeks to assert his own identity and vision for Hungary,

will the deep-rooted influence

of Orban's institutions, think tanks and universities cause him problems?

Broadcaster and writer David Aronovich has been following this for years, and last July

he reported the slow newscast, A Liberal Land, Hungary's Empire of Ideas, all about Victor Orban's

influence. You can listen to that

episode after my conversation with David, who's in the studio with me now. Hi, David. Hi.

The first question is broadly, what was your reaction on Sunday when you heard the result,

or maybe Monday morning? I have been really pessimistic about it. I mean, you know, if you're a kind of

fate-hearted, liberal like me, you always expect to be defeated these days. And the other thing is,

so much had the Orban clique and the people around him invested in maintaining power in Hungary,

I thought that they would be very reluctant to relinquish it.

So I was both astonished.

I mean, the polls had all were shown that Magid was going to win and could possibly win big.

But nevertheless, I thought that somehow or other it wouldn't be allowed to happen.

...