In Hungary, Orbán’s loss shows how populism can run out of road | CNN

The defeat of Viktor Orbán means Hungary will have a change in government for the first time since 2010. Although polls had suggested a decisive victory for the opposition Tisza party, many of its supporters refused to allow themselves to imagine what victory might feel like. After 16 years of rule by Orbán’s illiberal Fidesz party, the electoral playing field had been so tilted against his opponents that some questioned whether an alternative was possible. So when Orbán conceded defeat to his opponent, Péter Magyar, it felt to some like regime change. András Petöcz, a writer and poet, said the feeling reminded him of being in Budapest during the collapse of the Soviet Union. “I was 30 years old when the Communist regime ended. It’s the same feeling – the same,” he told CNN from the banks of the Danube, where thousands of Tisza supporters had gathered to hear the results. Magyar, the incoming prime minister, told the crowd: “Together, we replaced the Orbán regime. Together, we liberated Hungary. We took our country back.” Although much remains unclear – from the size of Tisza’s majority in parliament to how it will begin the work of unpicking the system Fid