Vance in Budapest: Orbán as the Far Right’s Proof of Concept – the ideological logic of the Trump–Orbán alliance comes into focus
The far-right political rulers of the USA and the Russian Federation, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, are promoting the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, ahead of a general election in the Eastern European state on Sunday April 12 2026. The implications of this political development are widely understood; a selection of reactions which have appeared on Bluesky should put an end – for ever – the obviously ludicrous theory promoted by some on the left that the 2022 Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine was a disguised USA V Russia war (a “Proxy” war).
Vance in Budapest: Orbán as the Far Right’s Proof of Concept
What Pinochet Was to Neoliberals, Orbán Is to Christian Nationalists
When US Vice-President J.D. Vance travelled to Budapest to endorse Viktor Orbán ahead of the 2026 Hungarian elections, the ideological logic of the Trump–Orbán alliance came into focus. For American nativist Christian nationalists, Orbán’s Hungary is a proof of concept: evidence that a programme combining Christian nationalism, anti-migration politics, and systematic dismantling of democratic opposition can hold power for sixteen years. Jan Bělíček dissects Vance’s Budapest speech — its Great Replacement tropes, its anti-EU demagoguery, its hollow invocations of workers’ rights, and the irony of preaching Christian civilisation to a comparatively secular Hungarian audience. The underlying agenda, Bělíček concludes, is replication: Vance and Trump want to build in the United States what Orbán has built in Hungary. [AN]
Watching yesterday’s second appearance by J.D. Vance in Budapest, I think I finally understood why the second-highest-ranking US politician has travelled to lend his support to Viktor Orbán ahead of the elections. [1] For nativist Christian nationalists like Vance, Orbán’s Hungary represents much the same thing that Augusto Pinochet represented for the neoliberal right. [2] It demonstrates that their political experiment — grounded in Christianity, aggressive nationalism, and hostility to expert knowledge and the left — can succeed and hold power for an extraordinary sixteen years.
The whole event began with a slightly awkward phone call between Vance and Trump, in which Trump initially failed to pick up because he was dealing with his crisis in Iran. Both then declared that they want Orbán to be re-elected as Hungarian prime minister, whilst insisting that they are absolutely not telling Hungarians who to vote for. No, no — this is not interference. The ones interfering, apparently, are Brussels bureaucrats who have allegedly made millions of euros attacking sovereign nations within the European Union. Trump spoke directly of an “invasion” from which Hungary has defended itself. Hungarians first. Vance went so far as to link the European Union directly to the communist movement — quite a claim.
The far-right Great Replacement conspiracy theory [3] made another appearance in his speech. European bureaucrats, he claimed, have opened Europe’s borders and admitted millions of “unvaccinated migrants”. These same people call themselves feminists, yet they allow millions of immigrants into our countries who terrorise our women. This comes very close to the rhetoric of the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, National Socialist German Workers’ Party). Vance professed his love for Europe and its history whilst expressing his contempt for European bureaucrats who have, he claimed, driven up energy costs for Europeans and admitted millions of migrants. There is, according to Vance, only one alternative: Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
It is rather ironic that Vance criticises European bureaucrats for making millions, whilst saying nothing about the billionaires and tech-industry insiders who have made many times more under Trump’s rule — and all this whilst shamelessly invoking workers’ rights. Equally hollow is the talk of cheap energy at a time when we have the most expensive energy in several years, a direct consequence of the bungled and senseless war the United States and Israel are waging against Iran. If this plays well with Hungarian voters, I will be genuinely surprised. Still more bizarre is hearing Vance rhapsodise about Jesus Christ and the Christian foundations of European civilisation before a Hungarian audience that remains, by European standards, comparatively secular.
What American ultra-conservatives admire about Orbán’s Hungary is quite simple: it wages relentless war on progressive thought, has succeeded in capturing the state apparatus, dismantling the judiciary, and creating a political environment in which the opposition has virtually no chance of success. [4] That is precisely what they would like to replicate at home. They admire the campaign against feminism, queer people, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and left-wing intellectuals. They also appreciate that Orbán undermines the coherent functioning of the European Union, which represents a competitor to the United States. And they admire the oligarchic structure that Orbán has built through his political work, and which in return assists him in governing. [5] Vance and Trump would like to build the same in the United States.
Jan Bělíček
P.S.
Source: Facebook post by Jan Bělíček, Deník Alarm (A2larm.cz), date unknown.
Translated from Czech and notes for ESSF by Adam Novak.
Footnotes
[1] The 2026 Hungarian parliamentary elections are scheduled for spring 2026. Orbán’s Fidesz (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége, Alliance of Young Democrats) has governed Hungary continuously since 2010, when it won a supermajority that enabled it to rewrite the constitution and fundamentally reshape the country’s political and judicial institutions.
[2] Pinochet’s Chile (1973–1990) served as a testing laboratory for neoliberal economic policies developed by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. The regimes that emerged from the 1970s crisis of the left — whether Pinochet’s market authoritarianism or today’s nativist Christian nationalism — have in common their function as models: proof that an ideological programme can be imposed and sustained against the resistance of established institutions and majorities.
[3] The Great Replacement (French: grand remplacement) is a far-right conspiracy theory holding that white European populations are being deliberately replaced by non-white migrants through the agency of cosmopolitan elites. Originating in the writings of French author Renaud Camus (Le Grand Remplacement, 2011), it has become a staple of the international far right. For an analysis of its role in contemporary disaster nationalism, see: Richard Seymour, “Disaster Nationalism: the ’kairos’ theory of the new right”, Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, 8 October 2020. Available at: https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article55131.
[4] On Orbán’s systematic dismantling of Hungary’s democratic institutions, judicial independence, and press freedom, see: Gáspár Miklós Tamás, “This Is Post-Fascism”, Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières. Available at: https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article63702.
[5] On the parallels between Orbán’s authoritarian consolidation and the Trump administration’s agenda, see: Ashley Smith, “Against the New McCarthyism: Building the Resistance after the Kirk Assassination”, Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières. Available at: https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article76499.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
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