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The Masters 2026: final round – live | The Masters
Key events
The leaders are out
The final group takes to the tee … and both Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy take 3-woods for safety. The way Rory has been driving all week, this could be a tactic we’ll see more than once. Time will tell. It’s not as though he’s giving up too much distance, and he’s just wedging in from 155 yards. He very nearly slam-dunks it, too, a couple of feet to the left. He’ll have a good look at birdie from 11 feet. That’ll hopefully put him on an even keel: remember he bogeyed Tea Olive yesterday, and infamously doubled it on Sunday last year. That, it is fair to say, is a marked improvement. Young, having found the fairway bunker on the right, finds the heart of the green and will have a putt from 20 feet or so.
An opening birdie for Sam Burns in the penultimate group. A lovely downhill putt from 30 feet, and he joins the leaders at -11. His playing partner Shane Lowry however takes a heavy-handed chip from the front of 1, and bogey takes him the other way. No birdie for Scheffler on 2, meanwhile, but Tyrrell Hatton follows up his spectacular eagle on 7 with birdie at 8.
-11: Burns (1), Young, McIlroy
-9: Rose (1)
-8: Scheffler (2), Day (1), Lowry (1)
-7: Hatton (8), Cantlay (3), Henley (3), Li (2)
Scottie takes putter from the back of 2. He only just gets his putt through the fringe, though the margins are small, and it still dribbles down to six feet. But he’s not 100 percent happy with that. A thin-lipped smile as he considers his birdie putt. Meanwhile a bogey for Viktor Hovland on 18, and he ends the week with a 67 at -4. That round promised more. He’s the new clubhouse leader, though.
Justin Rose isn’t wasting time either! He chips in from the swale to the right of Tea Olive, and the three-time runner-up moves to within a couple of the lead at -9. The gallery, who wouldn’t say no to the genial Rose getting his flowers at last, erupt in delight. Meanwhile over on 2, Scottie Scheffler fires his second into the green, but over the back. Still a decent opportunity to get up and down from close-ish range, though. A sense that this Masters is about to catch fire, and the leaders aren’t even out yet. Fingers crossed for an all-time classic. Another all-time classic. Two in two years too much to ask?
You’ll have noticed Tyrrell Hatton popping up at the bottom of that updated Leader Board at -6. That’s because he’s just holed out for eagle on 7 from 131 yards, landing his ball 15 feet over the flag and spinning it back into the cup! Earlier on today, Aaron Rai did the exact same thing, from 137 yards, so it’s been a good day on Pampas for the English. Rai ended his week at +5 after a round of 70.
Scottie Scheffler isn’t wasting time. A high cut around the branches from the pine straw down the left of 1 into the heart of the green. A mirror-image version of the wedge Bubba Watson played from the trees at 10 to win the play-off in 2012. He’s seven feet away. In goes the birdie putt, and if the leaders weren’t already worried†, they are now††. Bogey for his playing-partner Haotong Li, though, the cost of leaving his approach short.
-11: Young, McIlroy
-10: Burns
-9: Lowry
-8: Scheffler (1), Day, Rose
-7: Knapp (4), Henley (1)
-6: Åberg (7), Hatton (7), Schauffele (5), Reed (2), Cantlay (1), Li (1)
†: They were
††: They already were
Jake Knapp doesn’t have much of a record in the majors. A tie for 55th at the 2024 Masters, a couple of missed cuts at the PGA, another missed cut at the US Open. But the 31-year-old Californian did tie for 12th at the Players last year, and is poised to build on that here. An opening round of 73 followed by a pair of 69s, and with birdies at 1 and 3 he’s moved up the standings to -7.
Viktor Hovland responds magnificently to that double-bogey blow on 15. The pin on the famous par-three 16th is in its traditional Sunday position, front left, very accessible thanks to the downward camber of the green. Hovland finds the sweet spot that gathers his ball to six feet, then tidies up for birdie. He’s back to -5, and that’s the eighth birdie at 16 this afternoon already, with only 14 players having gone through so far.
Scottie Scheffler isn’t the only player looming large in the leaders’ rear-view mirrors. But you can bet your last shiny cent that Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy will consider him the most dangerous one. A world number-one ranking and two Green Jackets kind of add to the aura. Starting the day four behind at -7, it’ll take some effort from Scheffler, but if anyone can, Scottie’s the man. So having teed him up thus, he sends his opening drive wide of the bunker on the right-hand side of the fairway. He might have to punch under some branches from there. We’ll see. He’s going around today with Haotong Li, who he played with on the final day of last year’s Open at Portrush. A good omen for the big man? We’ll see about that as well. Li launches long down the left-hand side of the track.
Turns out Viktor Hovland’s momentum-saving efforts on 14 were all for nought. Hitting his second into 15, he air-mails the green, sending an absurdly overhit iron onto the bank behind and into the pond near the 16th. He can’t find the green with his chip back up, and that’s a double-bogey seven. Again, he isn’t the first, he won’t be the last, and it’s a reminder that the carpet can be whipped from underneath your feet at Augusta National in an instant. He’s -4.
Marco Penge was making a good fist of his Masters debut. Especially as the 27-year-old from Crawley, the reigning Spanish Open champion, took a triple-bogey eight at the 2nd on Thursday. Not the most auspicious start to his Augusta National career, but he limited the first-round damage to 76, then shot 69 and 71. Sadly his final round isn’t going so well, and he’s just dumped two balls in the water at the iconic par-three 12th, the first spinning back off the bank, the second from the dropzone not even getting over to dry land before dunking into the drink. A quadruple-bogey seven. He isn’t the first, he won’t be the last, and things could have gotten a whole lot worse, just ask the Towering Inferno …
Bogey at the last for Jon Rahm. A diminuendo end to a fine round of 68. You have to wonder how much buyer’s remorse Rahmbo has for joining the LIV tour: the 2021 US Open champion and 2023 Masters winner has never been the same player since. Still, his recovery this week from an opening round of 78 will give him a little succour. He ends his week at +1, one shy of the current clubhouse leader Gary Woodland.
We’re in that little major-championship sweet spot, the brief period of calm before the whipping up of a Sunday storm. So while we’re waiting for the leading players to take to the course, there’s time to indulge in a wee spot of Masters nostalgia. This episode of This Golfing Life, a wonderful new golf podcast hosted by the award-winning journalist and author Dan Davies, dives deep into the career of the 1980 and 1983 champion, the legendary Seve Ballesteros, and comes much recommended. (Fans of Paddington and Maurice Flitcroft may enjoy this episode too.) Get on it!
… so it’s probably time to update the Leader Board for the first time today. This is where we’re at for the moment. Meanwhile Viktor Hovland whips his second at 14 over the trees and into the heart of the green, and despite knocking his 25-foot birdie putt six past, tidies up to maintain his upward momentum. Quite a few of these lads, The Hov included, will be rueing their slow starts this week.
-11: Young, McIlroy
-10: Burns
-9: Lowry
-8: Day, Rose
-7: Scheffler, Li
-6: Hovland (14), Åberg (4), Knapp (1), Cantlay, Henley, Reed
Gary Woodland shoots 66
The chasing pack will be very much buoyed by the work of the early starters. Because is there a score out there? Oh yes, there’s a score out there. With the huge caveat that the fairways and greens will dry out and harden up as the afternoon sun beats down – Augusta National getting fast, fast, fast – the signs are very promising. Consider:
-
Ludvig Åberg has started out with three straight birdies; he’s -6 overall
-
Jon Rahm, who started the week with a LIV-shaming 78, is five under for his round today through 17; he’s level par
-
Gary Woodland has just got back to the clubhouse with a 66; he’s the early clubhouse leader at level par
-
Viktor Hovland is seven under through 13, though he’s just Roryed his drive into the trees at 14; he’s -6 for the Tournament
Is a low score on? Oh, it’s on. It’s already been on.
Garcia given code of conduct warning
Today’s weather bulletin: clear, dry and the hottest it’s been all week, with temperatures climbing into the mid-80s. Wind picking up a little during the day, but not in any intrusive manner. Meanwhile in other temperature-related news, the 2017 champion Sergio Garcia has been getting very hot under the collar, reacting to an errant drive on 2 by battering his driver into the ground a couple of times, before whacking it across a nearby cooler, snapping it in two. He’s been given an official code of conduct warning by Augusta National officials, while the tanty registers C++ on the Guardian’s Official Masters Meltdown-o-Meter™, which older and more jaded readers may remember from hole-by-hole reports passim.
Welcome, patrons, it’s time to clamber aboard the rollercoaster. Now then, if the wild and wonderful scenes of Moving Day are anything to go by, many things are possible today. The most likely is that either Rory McIlroy or Cameron Young will win: that’s because the last nine winners have come from the final pairing on Sunday. But there is precedent of a win from as far as eight shots back after 54 holes: Jack Burke Jr. pulled off that particular trick in 1956. Admittedly he only had three players ahead of him on the Leader Board, and it was blowing a field-scattering hoolie, but an eight-stroke comeback is an eight-stroke comeback, whichever way you spin it. Therefore anyone starting the day as low as -3 is technically in with a chance. At least according to the historical data. Even if they have 17 more players ahead of them than Burke did. And today’s conditions are benign. So let’s be realistic. But those are the facts, flat on the page.
Preamble
Exactly 30 years ago, give or take two days, this happened …
… so the loss of a six-shot lead at the Masters isn’t exactly a new thing. And hey, unlike the poor old Great White Shark, at least Rory has 18 more holes still to play, and with them an opportunity to do something about it.
Here’s how the top of the Leader Board looked when dawn broke in Georgia …
-11: Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy
-10: Sam Burns
-9: Shane Lowry
-8: Jason Day, Justin Rose
-7: Scottie Scheffler, Haotong Li
-6: Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, Patrick Reed
-5: Collin Morikawa, Jake Knapp, Ben Griffin
-4: Ryan Gerard, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Wyndham Clark, Tyrrell Hatton, Tonny Fleetwood
-3: Ludvig Åberg, Brian Campbell, Nick Taylor, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Michael Brennan, Max Homa, Chris Gotterup, Kristoffer Reitan
… and here are today’s tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST).
1406 Aaron Rai (Eng), Charl Schwartzel (SA)
1417 Gary Woodland, Kurt Kitayama
1428 Jon Rahm (Spa), Sergio Garcia (Spa)
1439 Si Woo Kim (Kor), Rasmus Hojgaard (Den)
1450 Keegan Bradley, Dustin Johnson
1501 Matt McCarty, Corey Connors (Can)
1512 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Justin Thomas
1523 Alex Noren (Swe), Maverick McNealy
1545 Adam Scott (Aus), Marco Penge (Eng)
1556 Harris English, Samuel Stevens
1607 Brian Harman, Jordan Spieth
1618 Im Sung-jae (Kor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
1629 Sepp Straka (Aut), Jacob Bridgeman
1640 Chris Gotterup, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor)
1651 Michael Brennan, Max Homa
1713 Nick Taylor (Can), Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)
1724 Ludvig Aberg (Swe), Brian Campbell
1735 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)
1746 Brooks Koepka, Wyndham Clark
1757 Ryan Gerard, Xander Schauffele
1808 Jake Knapp, Ben Griffin
1830 Patrick Reed, Collin Morikawa
1841 Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley
1852 Scottie Scheffler, Li Haotong (Chn)
1903 Jason Day (Aus), Justin Rose (Eng)
1914 Sam Burns, Shane Lowry (Ire)
1925 Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy (NI)
This report will get going at 6pm BST. In the meantime, catch up with the dramatic action from round three by reading Ewan Murray’s report …
… here’s how Rory McIlroy felt after letting his six-shot lead slip …
… and here’s Andy Bull on how sensational Scottie Scheffler put himself in the mix for the Green Jacket.
It’s on!
Police say the seized dog – a family pet – is believed to be a Lurcher cross.
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UK News
Hungary election live: voters head to the polls in contest that could see end of Viktor Orbán’s rule | Hungary
Key events
Good ‘vibes’ give Budapest hopes for opposition win
Jakub Krupa
in Budapest’s 14th district
Making the most of a beautiful day in Budapest, I spent a large part of the day zooming Budapest (using the city’s great bike paths!) and chatting with voters.
In the 14th district of Budapest, I spoke with several people voting in the polling stations on Ajtósi Dürer sor.
Atilla, 35, told me that he was confident about the result because of “the vibes” in the city and the country. “It will be really big change,” he told me confidently.
But where was that confidence coming from, I ask. “[It’s] because of the vibes in Hungary,” he replied with a cheeky smile. “It’s the vibes, [everyone is] so passionate, and I’m hearing it’s not just in Budapest, like four years ago; it’s better.”
How much a potential change of government would mean to him?
No words to say how much. Too much.
Separately, Barbara and Margit, 21, also expressed some hope about the result – but they struck a more cautious note.
“I feel really hopeful. We finally have a chance to change the government,” Margit said.
But Barbara said she wanted to stay “realistic” before the results come in.
“I thought last time around that the opposition seemed pretty strong and it wasn’t [in the end]. I’m trying to not get my hopes up, but we will see. I hope something changes today.”
She added that if the opposition wins,
“It will mean a lot – not just for us as a country, but also for Europe in general. I have seen quite a few posts about the Czech Republic and different countries, all waiting for [the results of] our election.”
Voters in Budapest for change, but remain nervous about outcome
Flora Garamvolgyi
in Budapest’s 5th district
I went to a few polling stations today to get a sense of how Budapest residents in the heart of the city are feeling about today’s elections.
Most of them weren’t sure about the outcome, despite most polls showing a confident lead for Tisza, but expressed hope. Some young voters said they feel like they are witnessing a historic moment.
“I really hope there will be a change of government,” Fruzsi, 22, told me at Erzsébet Square, next to the famous Budapest ferris wheel, right after she cast her vote. “My experience is that there are so many angry people because they are lying to us.”
She says she is really bothered by the intense propaganda the government is pushing on voters.
Gergő, 36, seemed a little more nervous about the results. He said he and others anticipated change during previous elections, too, and were unpleasantly surprised by the outcome. So now he is more cautious and approaches today with an “anything is possible” attitude.
“But I am anticipating change. At least I’m hoping. … This arrogant political style from the government, and that they are inciting hate and attacking everyone, from teachers to judges and all ethnic groups, is awful,” he told me, adding that when the government is done with attacking Zelenskyy, they’ll find a new enemy.
Mária, 81, is also hopeful, but she is hoping for a very different outcome than Fruzsi and Gergő, rooting for the ruling party, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz.
“I trust that he’ll protect our country,” she told me, adding that she doesn’t think the war is the biggest threat looming over Hungary, but rather “all of these extremist people who don’t think the way they should.” She said people should not have too high expectations for the government because they don’t have the budget to execute everything, and is hopeful that it’ll be another supermajority for Orbán.
I am now heading over to the international press room at the Tisza event – after making sure I’m properly caffeinated for the long night ahead…
‘It’s going to be very exciting’ – what voters tell us on the ground in Budapest
in Budapest
Orbán’s Hungary ‘remains in a category of its own’ on repressive laws and policies
So much focus on Hungary is somewhat understandable as a recent Liberties report found that Orbán’s Hungary “remains in a category of its own [in Europe], continuing to pursue ever more regressive laws and policies with no sign of change”.
But it’s not the only country with severe problems when it comes to the rule of law.
Drawing on evidence from more than 40 NGOs in 22 countries, the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) described the governments of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia as “dismantlers” that were actively weakening the rule of law.
But we also looked at the rule of law more broadly…
… as well as the far-right’s attacks on Europe’s public service media …
… and on how Europe’s civil society fights back against some of these controversial moves across the continent.
The report was prepared by our Europe correspondent Jon Henley, with contributions from Deborah Cole in Berlin, Angela Giuffrida in Rome, and, well, me!
‘He cares about Hungarians’: the small Ukrainian town divided over Orbán
Pjotr Sauer
in Berehove
Across much of Ukraine, Sunday’s parliamentary election in Hungary is being followed with a singular hope: that Viktor Orbán, the Kremlin-friendly leader who has made opposition to Kyiv a centrepiece of his campaign, will be voted out after 16 years in office.
But in Berehove, the mood is more complicated.
In this small town of about 30,000 in Ukraine’s hilly Zakarpattia region, ethnic Hungarians form a majority, and Hungarian is heard as often as Ukrainian. Daily life – from schooling to the television channels watched at home – remains closely tethered to neighbouring Hungary.
Some residents admit, often quietly, that they are rooting for Orbán’s Fidesz party.
Orbán has long portrayed himself as a defender of ethnic Hungarians abroad – about 60,000 of whom live in Zakarpattia – claiming they face widespread discrimination in Ukraine and are being forced to assimilate into Ukrainian society.
His critics, both in Hungary and within Ukraine, say he has exaggerated – and at times distorted – those grievances to justify a hostile stance towards Kyiv and its western allies.
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán seeking to drum up votes by doing down Ukraine
Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvölgyi
in Budapest
Paid for by its rightwing, populist government, the billboards attacking Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the opposition leader, Péter Magyar, blanket Hungary.
It’s a nod to the election strategy that Viktor Orbán, the EU’s longest-serving leader, has unleashed as he lags in most polls before upcoming elections: convincing voters that the country’s greatest threat is not fraying social services, the rising cost of living or economic stagnation, but rather the neighbouring country of Ukraine.
“Effectively, Ukraine is portrayed as a main enemy,” said Zsuzsanna Végh, an analyst at the German Marshall Fund. “This is not just about Ukraine per se, but it fits into the standard strategy of the governing party, of mobilising its electorate through generating fear in society.”
In 2018, when Orbán was seeking a third consecutive term as prime minister, he and his Fidesz party sought to stoke fears about migration. In 2022, as voters headed to the ballot box five weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Orbán peddled the baseless claim that the opposition would send Hungarian troops to fight in the war.
This election, as Orbán faces an unprecedented challenge from a former top member of his own party, Péter Magyar, the strategy has seemingly been kicked into high gear. “We definitely see a significant escalation,” said Végh.
Leaked calls prompt scrutiny of Hungary’s close ties with Moscow
In the final weeks of the campaign, Viktor Orbán and his ministers also repeatedly clashed with Ukraine and EU member states over Budapest’s close ties with Moscow.
In one leaked phone call, it appeared that Orbán offered to go to great lengths to help Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian leader “I am at your service” in an October call, it has emerged, prompting further scrutiny of Budapest’s ties to the Kremlin just as JD Vance arrived in the city.
Separately, a number of leaked telephone calls between Hungary’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, prompted the European Commission to demand an urgent explanation from Budapest.
In the leaked conversations, the pair talked about a number of confidential EU discussions, including on EU sanctions on Russia and the bloc’s accession policy towards Ukraine, with Szijjártó even offering to share some internal documents.
Their interactions were branded “repulsive” and “unacceptable” by several EU leaders.
In response, one of the country’s best-known investigative journalists was also targeted by the government with spying allegations.
Trump, Vance and European far-right leaders rallied for Orbán ahead of tricky electoral test
In the build up to today’s vote, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán received unprecedented backing from foreign leaders, many of whom even made the trip to Budapest to offer their public endorsement.
In late March, several like-minded leaders from across Europe – including France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders – attended a “Patriots for Europe” meeting in Budapest, praising the embattled prime minister and his importance in the conservative movement.
And in the last week, the US vice-president JD Vance flew into Budapest to appear alongside Orbán and endorse him just days before the vote.
“It’s unprecedented for an American vice-president to come the week before an election,” he acknowledged.
But he said he had decided to come because of what he described as the “garbage happening against” Orbán in the election, and said he wanted “to help, as much as I possibly can” – all while rejecting claims of interference.
But his boss, the US president, Donald Trump, has also not exactly been shy about expressing his preferences, repeatedly urging Hungarians to vote for his ideological ally.
On Friday, he even offered to throw “the full economic might of the US to strengthen Hungary’s economy,” stepping up his support for Orbán even further.
Who is Péter Magyar, the opposition leader challenging Viktor Orbán?
Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvölgyi
in Budapest
As a child growing up in Budapest, Péter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orbán – at the time a leading figure in the country’s pro-democracy movement – hanging above his bed.
Orbán was one of several political figures that adorned his bedroom, Magyar told a podcast last year, hinting at his excitement over the changes sweeping the country after the collapse of communism.
Now Magyar, 45, is the driving force behind what could be another momentous political change in Hungary: the ousting of Orbán, whose 16 years in power has transformed the country into a “petri dish for illiberalism”.
Conversations with those who know Magyar often alternate between admiration and antipathy. Many praise the tremendous movement he has built and the discipline he has shown as he crisscrosses the country, giving up to six speeches a day, while also describing him as someone with a short temper and a style that can be abrasive at times.
Others see him as the perfect fit for the magnitude of the moment. “I think, like all politicians, he can be a difficult person,” said Tamás Topolánszky, a film-maker who was part of a team that spent the past 18 months following Magyar for a film on the wider change sweeping Hungarian society.
Topolánszky described Magyar as authentic and passionate, but also someone who could be impatient at times. “I think that this is something that we Hungarians now see was necessary to get us to this point.”
Opposition leader Magyar paints vote as ‘choice between East or West’
Opposition leader Péter Magyar said today’s vote in Hungary amounted to “a choice between East or West” which would define the country’s future for “a very, very long time.”
Speaking to reporters after voting in Budapest, Magyar presented the vote as a historic choice of the country’s orientation and between “propaganda or honest public discourse; corruption or clean public life.”
He said first turnout data was “very, very encouraging,” but urged everyone to vote.
The fate of Hungary is being decided today for a very, very long time.
The Tisza leader appeared confident about the result of the vote, saying his party “will win this election,” but “the question is whether we can get this two-thirds mandate, or do we have to govern with a simple majority.”
He said a supermajority would make it easier to “dismantle this system, tear apart this spider web which entangles our country.”
Magyar also responded to speculations about potential provocations that could see the result contested, urging people to “maintain their peace.”
“No one should give in to any provocation. We know for sure that if this election takes place calmly and legally, then this election will be won by Tisza and Hungary,” he said.
2026 turnout by 5pm still far ahead of previous elections
Speaking about the turnout (17:20), we have just had the latest update, showing record-high levels of interest in the election.
More than 74% of the electorate has cast their votes by 5pm, up from 62% at the same time of the day in 2022.
Most Hungarians want better relations with EU, poll finds
Jon Henley
Europe correspondent
After years of relentless EU-bashing by their nationalist, illiberal prime minister, an overwhelming majority of Hungary’s voters back its membership of the bloc, and most – including many of Viktor Orbán’s voters – now want a new approach to Brussels.
Days before elections at which Orbán, who has consistently painted the EU as an enemy of the Hungarian people, risks being ousted after 16 years in power, a poll has shown a huge appetite for a recalibration of the country’s relations with the bloc.
The survey, by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank, found that 77% of voters support EU membership; three-quarters of respondents “trust” the bloc; and 68% want at least some degree of change in Hungary’s EU engagement.
Orbán has battled with Brussels – which has suspended billions of euros in funding – over a wide range of policies including on justice, migration, LGBTQ+ rights and aid for Ukraine, which, along with sanctions against Russia, he has consistently blocked.
EU leaders have largely steered clear of commenting on Sunday’s vote to avoid accusations of seeking to influence it, but Orbàn’s status as a far-right icon in Europe and beyond makes the election the bloc’s most consequential this year.
While the desire for change was strongest (91%) among supporters of Péter Magyar, the centre-right challenger whose Tisza party leads Orbán’s Fidesz by a double-digit margin in recent polls, nearly half (45%) of Fidesz voters also wanted a reset.
Majorities of Fidesz voters also said they supported Hungary’s continued membership of the EU (65%) and “trusted” the bloc (64%), while a large minority (43%, compared with 66% in the population as a whole) even backed Hungary joining the euro.
23 years on from EU accession referendum, Hungary ‘once again … decides direction’ of country
Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvölgyi
in Budapest
Today’s election comes 23 years to the day after Hungarians voted overwhelmingly to join the European Union, drawing comparisons to that historic vote and its influence on the future of the country.
“Now, on 12 April, once again, voters are not simply choosing between parties, but deciding the direction, identity, and future of Hungary,” Tisza’s Anita Orbán, no relation to the prime minister, said on social media. “In many ways, this election is a referendum on whether Hungary returns to European values.”
It was a hint of how much has changed in Hungary since Orbán took power in 2010. What followed was, in the words of Zoltán Kész, a former member of the Fidesz party, nothing less than a “coup in slow motion,” albeit one that eschewed tanks for lawyers and clientelism.
The rightwing populist government had used its time in office to steadily whittle away at the checks and balances that constrained its power: rewriting election laws to its own benefit, manoeuvring to put loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of the country’s media, and retooling the country’s judiciary.
Meanwhile, Budapest has become a hub of thinktanks and conferences aimed at amplifying the idea of Hungary, in the words of one local journalist, as a “Christian conservative Disneyland” where the global far right feels at home.
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