Will voters back "the poster boy for the far-right"?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hungary goes to the polls on Sunday and for the first time in sixteen years, Donald Trump’s right-wing ally Viktor Orbán might lose his iron grip on power. But who is this man who’s ruled the country for so long? What do we know about the man who could unseat him? And what would a loss for Orbán mean for the populist right and for Europe as a whole?
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Guests:
- Peter Conradi, Europe editor, The Sunday Times
- Victor Sebestyen, journalist and author covering Eastern Europe & Russia
Host: Luke Jones
Producer: Sophie McNulty, Olivia Case
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Read more: Who is Peter Magyar, the man hoping to oust Viktor Orban?
Clips: Bloomberg, DRM News, Péter Magyar - YouTube
Photo: Getty Images, The Times.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:10.3 | I think it's the most important election of anywhere that's going to happen this year. |
| 0:17.4 | Ahead of Hungary's election this weekend, Victor Sebastian has been writing for the Sunday Times about Victor Orban, the Prime Minister and global pin-up for the populist right. |
| 0:27.1 | Victor knew him decades ago. |
| 0:28.8 | His story is full of Iranis. |
| 0:31.1 | I asked him once quite late at night in a bar, okay, all of this communism's going to go. |
| 0:36.8 | What are your hopes for Hungary later on? |
| 0:40.4 | And when that happened, you said, oh, I want it to be a boring country, just like Austria or |
| 0:45.8 | Sweden. He always used to say that what he admired in Western Europe was the free press. |
| 0:54.3 | How times change. |
| 0:55.8 | Having been in power almost 16 years in this second stint, |
| 0:59.5 | Orban has been accused by some of being an authoritarian. |
| 1:03.3 | There are no separation of powers at all. |
| 1:05.8 | He's taken over the legal system. |
| 1:08.2 | He's taken over the National Bank. |
| 1:10.4 | He's taken over the media. |
| 1:12.8 | I think he's a great opportunist. |
| 1:15.8 | He'll move with the wind. |
| 1:18.2 | And the wind is illiberal democracy, as he called it. |
| 1:27.1 | How did this happen? |
| 1:28.8 | Who is the challenger ahead of Orban in the polls? |
| 1:32.8 | And why should any of us care? |
... |
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