If you don’t have good candidates to vote for, you won’t have good people in office.
A summary of how Orban came to power:
In 2009 the Hungarian Prime Minister resigned after the war in Georgia because he had put his entire political fortunes on a gas pipeline from Georgia. This is a very unpopular move in former Russian colonies like Hungary.
Orban ran and won in 2010 offering a different stance compared to the nominally center-left party which was leaving office. The Democratic Coalition has remained a minor party ever since due to its pro-Russian history.
Under Orban, there has been fairly consistent growth in Hungary’s GDP per capita. They have remained part of the European Union, NATO, and most importantly the Schengen area. Granted, he is a right-wing asshole, postponing Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area and refusing to send Ukraine military aid during this war, but Hungary has remained part of these vital institutions.
It’s only since Orban has been refusing to send Ukraine military aid in the last few years that a real opposition has formed against him. The left-wing coalition in Hungary has not recovered since. The only opposition to Orban which has managed to form in response to him over the last few years is also center-right and also opposes sending aid to Ukraine, so don’t expect them to change any.
Plus, Fidesz has never won an outright majority in parliament, they have always been in coalition with a center-right party.
The reason Orban has stayed in power is simply because the left wing in Hungary effectively does not exist.
If the center-left parties can make it clear they oppose Putin and support Ukraine, maybe things will change. The polling data tends to match up with the election results very closely. If Hungary got too despotic, they are in the Schengen Area so there is nothing stopping Hungarians from moving anywhere else in the Schengen Area or European Union. This acts as an effective brake on Orban’s right-wing policies.
For a counter-example, British citizens used to have the same rights Hungarians do but since Brexit went into effect they no longer have the right to freely live and work in the European Union. If the Tories come to power under Nigel Farage, the British people will be effectively trapped in a way that Hungarians are not.
For this reason, while I am no fan of Viktor Orban for many legitimate reasons, he is still a better prime minister than Keir Starmer or David Cameron.