Hungary at the crossroads: inside the 10 April Guardian Weekly

Could Viktor Orbán really lose Hungary’s election? Plus: Inside Britain’s cargo theft crisis Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address An irony of Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power in Hungary is that his Fidesz movement was originally founded by pro-democracy, change-seeking young voters, even initially requiring members to be below the age of 35. Now, in a crossroads election on 12 April, a new generation of Hungarians may be on the cusp of removing the rightwing populist prime minister, much to the dismay of his admirers in Moscow, Washington and Europe’s populist movements. Orbán may have once described Hungary as “a petri dish for illiberalism” – as reflected by Harry Haysom’s cover art for us this week – but polls suggest his opponent Péter Magyar, a former top member of Fidesz who favours a closer relationship with the EU, could be the new change agent. Is Orbán really about to be ousted? Ashifa Kassam, Flora Garamvolgyi and Jon Henley set the stage for our big story this week. Ominously, as Ashifa explores in a fascinating piece, both Russia and the US – for somewhat different reasons – have been busily trying to bolster Orbán’s chances behind the scenes. Wha