S8 Ep742: 12. Viktor Orbán's Defeat and the European Center. Edmund Fitton-Brown analyzes the ousting of Hungary's Viktor Orbán by Peter Magyar as a victory for traditional democracy. This shift removes a major obstacle to EU aid for Ukraine and disrupts Vladimir P
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Betts, who is Edmund Fitten Brown of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, |
| 0:21.3 | former ambassador to Yemen from the UK, former UN official for a charge to the whole region, |
| 0:27.5 | now at war, Ulyrajo Senior Fellow Foundation for Defense of Democracy. |
| 0:32.5 | In 1989, a long-haired 26-year-old took to the centerpiece of the revolt in his country of Hungary |
| 0:40.5 | and spoke out for freedom. Don't be afraid. We're not afraid, he said. That 26-year-old is now a |
| 0:47.4 | very exhausted Victor Orbot, who has just been defeated overwhelmingly, as far as I can tell, by people who used to vote for him. |
| 0:56.3 | He's been pushed aside. |
| 0:57.9 | This looks like good news, but I don't want to get ahead of this. |
| 1:01.2 | Help me, Edmund. |
| 1:02.1 | Is it good news that Edmund Fitton Brown, after visiting Vladimir Putin and shaking his hand in Moscow, |
| 1:07.4 | after receiving the kind words of the secretary, the vice president of United |
| 1:12.8 | States, Mr. Vans, is now asked to leave the room. Is this good news? Yes, John. This is |
| 1:20.5 | unqualified good news. It really is. And it's not often that we get to say that these days. |
| 1:25.1 | So let's enjoy it while we can. First of all, who is |
| 1:29.3 | most upset about this? Whose plans are most disrupted by this? It's Vladimir Putin. So Orban |
| 1:37.9 | was a sort of a fifth columnist within the European Union, who was highly sympathetic to Putin |
| 1:43.9 | and was frustrating European |
| 1:48.0 | efforts to support Ukraine and therefore was doing Putin's bidding on a certain level. So that's gone. |
| 1:55.5 | That means that we will now see the Europeans pass various measures in favour of Ukraine that were being held hostage |
| 2:02.4 | by Orban. Secondly, he was also sabotaging the EU from the inside, making it very difficult |
| 2:10.6 | for the EU to pursue any kind of policies. He would block things. And again, the fact that that's gone is good. |
| 2:20.4 | As long as the EU has also learned some lessons in the process, which is not to force |
... |
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