Paris: He has ruled Hungary with an iron grip for the past 16 years. But late Sunday night, Viktor Orban, 62, often described as “ the original Trump” or the “Trump before Trump” for his no-holds-barred, often crude, cruel rhetoric and extreme, hard-right views, acknowledged he had lost his fifth attempt to remain at the head of what he himself describes as Europe’s “illiberal democracy” and conceded defeat to his rival, Peter Magyar.As 8 million Hungarians went to the polls today to elect a fresh parliament, the new grassroots party, Tisza, formed by former apparatchik Magyar, had surged ahead and most pollsters were predicting a humiliating defeat for the prime minister despite vigorous campaigning by various far right leaders including US vice president J.D. Vance and France’s Marine Le Pen.Provisional results as at 930 PM Central European Time put Tisza at 52.80% of the vote and Orban’s FIDESZ at only 32%.Even though there was record voting by mid-day local time (almost 15 per cent higher than four years ago), indicating a massive wave in favour of the opposition, analysts warn that Hungary’s complicated voting system may still rob Magyar’s Tisza party of the outright majority that would be required if tough laws that have curbed the powers of the courts, changed media ownership, restricted free speech, pushed anti-immigration measures and championed anti-abortion so-called Christian “family values”, are to be rolled back.Nevertheless, an opposition victory signifies a serious blow to the hopes of the extreme right in Europe which, even as recently as six months ago, appeared to be on the up and up. However, the war in Iran has disenchanted many a right-wing voter, alerting them to the dangers of aggressive Trumpian politics.Orban has been one of Trump and Russia’s strongest supporters within Europe, having vetoed a 90-billion-Euro aid package for Ukraine proposed by the EU. But the war in Iran, America’s unbridled go-it-alone adventurism and undisguised contempt for the European Union and NATO has made supporters wary of what the EU described as Hungary’s “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”. Extreme-right leaders find themselves suddenly walking on eggshells. The demise of the European Union with a return to empire may not be such a wise idea, after all.Hungarians who voted today may not have been fully aware that the future fortunes of Europe’s extreme right rest upon their shoulders. “I am voting against Orban because the economy is in a shambles, there are no jobs to speak of. My son has done a computer course, but he sits home and watches the baby while his wife works long hours. This government is corrupt and we have witnessed scandal after scandal. Is it not time for a change?” asked Maija Racz, a retired schoolteacher on the phone from Debrecen, the Romanian frontier town where she now lives.When I first met Viktor Orban in early 1988, he was a fresh-faced 30-something student activist and political dissident in a country where the Marxist-Leninist Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (HSWP) still reigned supreme. He was introduced to me by the then dissident Hungarian writer Milkos Harazsti (who now teaches at Columbia University), in a bookshop in downtown Pest. The young Orban spoke eloquently about his centre-left liberal movement, FIDESZ, born a year earlier as the Alliance of Young Democrats which became better known as the Freedom Party. By 1990, Orban had assumed full leadership when the movement was formally registered as a political party and won the first of its many electoral victories.Ten years after we first met, by 1998, Orban had already transitioned from being a centrist democrat to a conservative with increasingly extremist views and by 2000, his conversion to Christian nationalism was complete. Over the years, the slim and unassuming young man has given way to a hard-nosed autocrat who brooks no opposition. His government has been shaken time and again by corruption scandals but Orban, who has championed an increasingly extremist form of nativist nationalistic Christianity has been re-elected four times. The open-minded young politician has been replaced by a grim autocrat. Maija who was once a fervent admirer now describes him as “an overfed, florid stoat, whose pebbly eyes are menacing and hard as marbles. His mouth looks mean and small, surrounded by rolls of fat, a bit like Donald Trumps’s”. The beleaguered PM, she says, might be on the verge of meeting his Waterloo.Orban’s defiance of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights (especially the controls he levied against the courts and a free press) led Brussels to freeze a significant portion of the developmental funds that would have gone to Hungary. Currently some 17 billion dollars remain frozen in the EU’s vault. And although Hungary and the EU have been engaged in a tussle these past years, Brussels’ attempts at control have not always been entirely successful. Hungary got its own back when it vetoed the EU’s 90-billion-dollar aid package to Ukraine. It is not certain that many of these issues will be resolved even if Peter Magyar is elected the country’s next prime ,inister.Viktor Orban managed to heavily gerrymander the country’s electoral districts so that FIDESZ has an unfair advantage in the election. Following changes brought in by Orban, Hungary now has a unicameral 199-seat parliament. A two thirds majority is necessary if several bits of legislation are to be pushed back by the opposition. Most opinion polls suggested that even if Orban is ousted the incoming parliament might retain its conservative flavour in the absence of an overwhelming wave in favour of Magyar. Even though a steady stream of Orban supporters have deserted his side, the incumbent prime minister remains a formidable force in the country who could yet prove to be a thorn in the side of the European Union.This is a developing story