1. There have been two defeats for far right extremism in Europe this week. The decent majority of Europeans, who oppose hatred, division and the politics of fear are waking up.
2. First the Sweden Democrats did badly, compared to expectations, in elections there; and the big Swedish parties lost votes to supporters of refugees and immigration.
3. Second, Hungary's strongman, Viktor Orban, was censured by the European parliament following @judithineurope's report
4. The nationalist authoritarian surge has sparked a counter-surge defending human rights, equality, diversity and the rule of law.
5. It's even visible in Bavaria where the Greens have advanced considerably.
6. Trump is one of the reasons for this - without his election, Orban wouldn't have felt to emboldened to start his culture war. But nor would democrats have felt as threatened. They would have carried on ignoring Hungary - a small country with an inscrutable language.
7. Now people understand that Orban wants to export his "democratura", already oppressing Hungarians, to Slovenia and elsewhere.
8. It's a shame that it's taken this threat to get people to focus on Hungary, a beautiful country of such importance to European history.
9/9. Post war Europe was founded on human rights and pluralist politics because we experienced the alternative. Extremist 1930s revivalists, given outsized coverage by fellow travellers in a clickthirsty media, can't be allowed to destroy that.
