Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 197

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Today's Topics:

   1. Read: "What Orban?s Defeat Means for the Rest of the World"
      (Vivek Pinto)
   2. Listen to: "Influential U.S. cardinals caution against Iran
      war, Trump immigration policies" (Vivek Pinto)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:44:13 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Read: "What Orban?s Defeat Means for the Rest of the
	World"
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9wY0fkmM_LcRCjbzVC9=OKmt7yh2oh3fdgfO_dLnTW0mg-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By Michelle Goldberg -
Opinion Columnist
Published in: *The New York Times*
Date: April 13, 2026

On Saturday, the day before the Hungarian election, I went to Puspokladany,
a run-down town of about 16,000 in northeastern Hungary, for the
penultimate rally of opposition leader Peter Magyar. Though the region has
traditionally been a stronghold of Prime Minister Viktor Orban?s Fidesz
Party, the square where Magyar spoke was overflowing; there seemed to be at
least 1,000 people, many of them teenagers and young families. Over and
over, Magyar beseeched the crowd, ?Do not be afraid!? The crowd, in turn,
broke into a chant: ?We are not afraid!?

I asked a woman I met in the crowd, Mariann Szabo, to explain Magyar?s
words: What had people been afraid of? An elementary school teacher and
mother of two, Szabo said that people like her, who worked in the public
sector, feared that if they were seen to oppose Fidesz, they could lose
their jobs and thus their ability to survive. That fear kept many people
quiet about their politics. Before Magyar?s campaign, Szabo knew there were
other people in her town who didn?t like Orban, but not how many.

Suddenly, it seemed like everything was about to change. ?The only moment
you can compare it to is 1989,? she said, when, just before the fall of the
Berlin Wall, Hungary?s Communist dictatorship came to an end.

On Sunday, it happened: Orban was defeated. In an election with the highest
voter turnout in Hungary?s democratic history, Magyar?s Tisza Party won a
two-thirds supermajority, enough to alter the constitution that Orban had
rewritten to shore up his power. In Budapest, Hungarians thronged the bank
of the Danube across from the city?s majestic neo-Gothic Parliament,
cheering, waving flags and popping champagne. When Orban?s concession
speech played on a giant screen, 50-year-old Zoli Kertesz exclaimed, ?This
is music!?

Some admirers of Orban have argued that the fact that he lost proves he was
never an autocrat to begin with. What it really demonstrates, however, is
that opposition to Fidesz was so strong it was able to overwhelm all the
structures Orban put in place to protect his rule: wildly distorted voting
districts, a captured media, state-sponsored propaganda, local patronage
networks, and widespread threats and intimidation.

Agnes Kunhalmi, a member of Parliament and the former co-president of
Hungary?s Socialist Party, told me that when she was recruiting candidates
in 2022, a school principal turned her down for fear that his daughter, a
teacher, would be fired if he ran. Another declined because he worried his
son would be cut off from a business arrangement with a Fidesz controlled
company. On the stump, Magyar constantly said that Orban was running a
?mafia state.? If that hadn?t resonated, he probably wouldn?t have won by
so much.

In recent days, as it became increasingly clear that Orban was losing, some
American and British conservatives argued that his ultimate success lay in
destroying the Hungarian left. ?The reason Peter Magyar has a chance to
beat Orban,? wrote <https://x.com/roddreher/status/2042996522250342810?s=20>
 Rod Dreher, the doyen of American conservatives in Budapest, is because
?he accepts, at least publicly, all the things Orban stands for.?

There is a grain of truth to this. Hungary?s election, like Poland?s election
in 2023, was a choice between the center-right and the authoritarian right.
Magyar voted to keep resisting illegal migration, an issue Orban is known
for. Last year, when more than 100,000 people defied Orban?s attempt to ban
a gay pride parade by marching in Budapest, Magyar didn?t attend. Kunhalmi
told me that the Parliament elected on Sunday will be the first since 1989
with no left-wing representation, in part because many progressive
candidates stood down to avoid splitting the anti-Orban vote. Kunhalmi
withdrew her own candidacy two weeks ago, making Election Day bittersweet.

But it is a mistake to understate the profound differences between Orban
and Magyar, or at least what Magyar is promising. Magyar campaigned on a
clean break from the existing order ? a message Democrats in the US might
learn from ? pledging to prosecute those who?ve enriched themselves at
public expense. In the run-up to the election, people in Hungary spoke less
about a change in leadership than a change in regime, from one that is
Russian-aligned and kleptocratic, with the ruling party embedded in
virtually every institution, to one that is free, liberal and oriented
toward Europe. If Magyar was just a slightly less corrupt version of Orban,
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin wouldn?t have cared so much about thwarting
him.

The geopolitical consequences of Magyar?s victory could be profound. Under
Orban, Hungary has vetoed aid to Ukraine and sanctions on both Russia and
Israel. Magyar?s movement is hostile to Russia; people at his rallies have
taken up the chant ?Russians Go Home,? a slogan from the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution. ?There is a strong narrative of commitment to the European
Union and NATO,? said Zsuzsanna V?gh, an analyst at the German Marshall
Fund. And since Magyar doesn?t have a personal relationship with Netanyahu,
she said, ?some sanctions against Israel would likely be acceptable? to a
Tisza government.

And while Magyar didn?t march in the pride parade, he?s unlikely to
demonize L.G.B.T.Q. people the way Orban did. Among those celebrating by
the Danube on Sunday night were Eszter Kalocsai, a 30-year-old bisexual
woman, and Milan Gabriel Berki, a 24-year-old gay man. They were delirious
with joy. Kalocsai said she?s spent the last 10 years hiding her attraction
to women. ?It?s amazing!? she cried. ?I feel like I can go out and say that
I love all people! Oh my God!? Added Berki, ?The feeling is overwhelming!?
Magyar told people not to be afraid, and they weren?t.
Michelle Goldberg has been an Opinion columnist since 2017. She is the
author of several books about politics, religion and women?s rights and was
part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018 for
reporting on workplace sexual harassment.


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:31:01 +0900
From: Vivek Pinto <[email protected]>
To: Goanet <[email protected]>
Subject: [Goanet] Listen to: "Influential U.S. cardinals caution
	against Iran war, Trump immigration policies"
Message-ID:
	<CAH3OY9wph09RWfjsv8SS1bG5qxa5E6_FJWhN7Xkrd+F41Kw2Vg-JsoAwUIsXosN+BqQ9rBEUg@public.gmane.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

By: Norah O'Donnell
Published in: *60 Minutes*
Date: April 13, 2026
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVDZYjwSkck
*Note:* The transcript is embedded in the source

"In the months since his election, Pope Leo has spoken up against both the
war in Iran and the mass deportation of migrants in the U.S. His statements
have inspired American cardinals to speak out."


End of Goanet Digest, Vol 21, Issue 197
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