Thread by @Daractenus

With less than 24 hours left until Hungarians head to the polls, I figured it is a good moment to take one final look at what Viktor Orbán has achieved in his 16 years of uninterrupted, near absolute reign in Hungary, by comparing Hungary’s performance with that of Romania.🧵

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 2026, after nearly 16 years of Viktor Orban, Hungary succeeded in being ranked as significantly more corrupt than Romania.

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

In 2026, thanks to Viktor Orban's sovereign economic genius, the average wage in Hungary and Romania stands about equal.

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 surpassed $400 bil.

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 Trump 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, while Romania has managed to now rank ahead the United States.

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.

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, even more so than Romania did, while the contributions Hungary made so far being mostly vetoes.

To put into context just how long this man has been the Eternal Supreme Dear Leader of Hungary, his friend Vladimir Putin, who has been the president of Russia for a quarter of a century now, had not yet been appointed head of the FSB when Viktor Orbán began his first term.

By the time Viktor Orbán began his second, and still uninterrupted, term in 2010, about 15% of Hungary’s current population had not yet been born. Nearly 2 million Hungarians have never known another leader in their entire lives.

Ruszkik haza! Now or Never. Godspeed neighbors!