Over his 16 consecutive years in power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has adopted many guises. During the 2015 migration crisis, he cast himself as Europe’s defender, sealing Hungary’s borders and describing migrants as a “poison.” He later repositioned himself as the moral steward of the Hungarian nation, advancing a strain of conservative Christianity to justify anti-LGBTQ+ policies and restrictions on women’s rights, in a sharp divergence from the European Union’s rules and norms.
At the same time, he has styled himself as the champion of what he dubbed “illiberal democracy,” railing against the EU’s “liberal empire” and openly defying the bloc’s bedrock tenets on rule of law. On foreign policy, he has maintained close ties with Russia, even after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Throughout it all, Orban has been defiant, combative and often politically untouchable. What he has rarely been is vulnerable.