Salute to modern British diversity

The Budapest crowds celebrating Viktor Orban’s defeat after 16 years in power in Hungary seemed to evoke more the euphoric spirit of the East European regime changes of 1989 rather than a general election result.

Yet 1989 had been the year of hope in which Orban himself burst onto the Hungarian political scene. He began as a young democrat, who fused anti-Communism with an appeal to Hungarian pride in the memory of the democratic uprising of 1956, crushed by Soviet tanks. Could that young Orban - who once led crowds chanting “Russians go home” have imagined he would travel so far to become Vladimir Putin’s chief autocratic ally in Europe, so that the same “Russians go home” chant now rang out to celebrate his demise, as new prime minister Peter Magyar made his victory speech. There was, at least, relief at Orban’s rapid concession, recognising his landslide defeat.