Stefano Bottoni: Orban is a rebel with the consent of the authorities

The Italian historian of Hungarian origin discusses about the recent Hungarian parliamentary elections and the phenomenon Orban in the times of Russian intervention in Ukraine:
- what motivates the Hungarian province, underclass and the Hungarian elites of Buda to support Orban from very different positions and with different rationalizations;
- why did the Hungarian opposition fail so lamentably at the April 2022 vote - over 20% points behind Orban in election results;
- Hungary as a regional powerhouse in Southeastern Europe - it started in 2015 with the refugee crisis and the coming in power of Law and Justice in Poland and it got quite a bit of magnitude;
- however the Polish leadership scorned Orban over his reluctance to adopt clear anti-Russian position an policies over the war in Ukraine - therefore Polish influence in the EU is rising, while the Hungarian one is falling;
- Hungary can no longer pretend to be a bridge and middle ground between "the West" and "the East", when there is an open confrontation between them;
- how to be a successful opposition to Orban and how not to be - examples from the elections with a right-wing and a left-wing candidate.