Thread by @Daractenus

With about 200 days left before Hungarians head to the polls, I figured it is the perfect time to review Orban's achievements by comparing Hungary to Romania, a comparison that I am sure will hit a cord with Hungarian ultranationalists and Orban fans in and outside Hungary.🧵

Despite having about half of Romania's population, in 2003, shortly after Orban's first term, Hungary had a GDP of $85 bil. while Romania's stood at $57 bil.

Today, after too many Orban years to count, Hungary's GDP is about $220 billion, while Romania's hit $400 bil.

In 2010, just as Orban started his second reign, the country stood as the 53rd least corrupt country in the world, while Romania was ranked as 75th.

In 2025, too many years of Orban to count, Hungary succeeded in being ranked as significantly more corrupt than Romania.

Something Romanians used to admire Hungary for was its highway system, which in 2010 stood at about 1200km, about 5 times bigger than Romania's.

Today, Romania's highway system is more or less on par with Hungary's and, unlike Hungary's, continues to expand at a rapid rate.

Pre-Orban Hungary could at the very least pride itself in having a minimum wage about twice that of Romania (or more, at various points in time).

In 2025, thanks to Orban's sovereign economic genius, the average wage in Hungary and Romania stands about equal.

Utterly obsessed with traditional values and fertility rates, Orban's highly effective measures brought Hungary's fertility rate to an impressive 1.5.

Romania, whose political class doesn't seem to care one bit about the matter and did nothing about it, stands at 1.7.

Every bit the free speech lover Musk is and with his friends and family now owning virtually every media outlet in the country, Orban's Hungary ranks slightly below Sierra Leone in terms of freedom of press.

Meanwhile, the 2024 ranking puts Romania slightly above the US.

With the evil EU as his mortal enemy, Orban's Hungary happens to be one of the top recipient of EU funds when accounting for all funds ever received since joining, while the contributions Hungary made so far mainly being vetoes, insults and sabotages.

In the early 2000s, it was rather common for Romanians living near the Hungarian border to cross into Hungary for shopping or work.

By 2025, the pattern had completely reversed, with an ever growing number of Hungarians from border areas coming to Romania to work or shop.

This post should not be seen and is not intended as a testament of "Romania's economic prowess and development".

This is and should be read as what Orban and autocracy in general does when compared even to a corrupt and far from perfect democratic state.