Europe is learning to cope with Viktor Orban

FROM A CYNICAL European perspective, Viktor Orban’s election triumphs are like covid-19 waves: nasty and seemingly inevitable, but less concerning once you have worked out how to live with them. And so it seems with the Hungarian prime minister’s victory at the polls on April 3rd, his fourth in a row. The size of Mr Orban’s win surprised the pundits. Yet the symptoms for the rest of Europe will be relatively mild. In recent months Hungary has been in the diplomatic equivalent of quarantine, thanks to its insistence on staying in a bubble with Russia. Better yet, Europe may have found new ways to combat this long-running affliction. Potent though it is at home, Mr Orban’s brand of “illiberal democracy” may finally be fading in virulence.