Western liberals hate democracy – and here’s the proof

Establishment politicians and media have largely ignored an apparent democratic outrage in an EU and Nato member state

Imagine for a moment that the following story had broken in the past couple of weeks. Parliamentary elections had taken place in Hungary. Incumbent prime minister Viktor Orban, populist scourge of the European Union and Western liberals generally, was expected to be returned as the head of government.

But, late in the day, an insurgent candidate whose programme was much more attuned to the priorities of Western institutions and liberal secularists, and who had relied on social media and grassroots volunteers to bolster his campaign, starts to make dramatic headway.

At the close of polls, it is clear that the insurgent is the winner. But the forces backing Orban protest. They make allegations of outside interference by some foreign state actor, and one or two other suggestions of foul play.

The evidence all seems a bit flimsy. Nonetheless, the Hungarian supreme court decides to annul the election. Orban will remain in power at least until a fresh election is held - but that won’t take place for several months, during which period the old guard will be able to regroup and organise afresh.

The denied candidate and his supporters quietly protest on the streets, but they are waved away by the authorities.

What might be the reaction of the EU and Nato to such events? What might the phalanx of liberal politicians populating the national parliaments across the West have to say about it? Or the ranks of activists and commentators who were very quick to speak up for ‘democracy’ during, say, the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2014 (which saw the ousting of the Russia-friendly prime minister Viktor Yanukovych), or at the Capitol building in 2021, or on every other occasion when they claimed that Western liberal values were being undermined by nefarious anti-democratic forces?

I have little doubt that these voices would have been raised in unison and to the highest decibel in protest. After all, these people are democrats to their core, are they not?

Yet when something similar to the above scenario occurred a couple of weeks ago in an EU and Nato member state, they maintained a conspicuous silence. I say ‘something similar’, because there were one or two differences. First, it was a presidential election. And second, the insurgent candidate was not a liberal secularist, but a populist conservative.