Viktor Orbán's Hungarian experiment runs out of steam

Viktor Orbán's Hungarian experiment runs out of steam28 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleNick ThorpeBudapest correspondentAttila Kisbenedek via Getty ImagesWhat Viktor Orbán did for the last 16 years in power was "an experiment" - but even he didn't know what to call it. "Illiberal democracy" sounded too negative.His American friends liked to call it "national conservatism", which sounds better, but it was never strictly true. Unlike most conservatives, Orbán was a rebel.He constantly radicalised himself. So what could he conserve?He loved to thumb his nose at the mainstream, at the "Brussels bureaucrats". He was a thorn in their side, but whenever they hit back, he turned it to his own advantage.He portrayed himself as an "anti globalist" but invited Germany carmakers, and Chinese and South Korean EV battery makers to Hungary. He painted himself as the champion of national sovereignty, but refused to stand up for Ukrainian sovereignty against Russia.Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPéter Magyar - holding the flag - won by a landslide He railed against immigration, but quietly encouraged immigration from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ukraine and Turkey to build his new factories.He poured money into encouraging couples to have more children, but by 2025, the fertility rate had fallen back to 1.31 - the same number he inherited from the Socialists in 2010.The way he swiftly conceded defeat on Sunday night showed him with a strong eye on his image. He acted as a "majoritarian" democrat, meaning that he believed that "the winner takes all" - and that's how he acted in government.One year after winning a two-thirds majority in 2010, he wrote a new constitution. He reshaped Hungary in his own image, to suit his own party.With his two-thirds majority in parliament he pushed through one law after another, to change the structure of the courts, the electoral system, and the economy.But...