Zebras, wealth and power: Hungary’s election tests Orbán’s grip on power

• 01Drone footage showed a sprawling residence in northern Hungary belonging to Viktor Orbán's father, featuring manicured gardens, a swimming pool, underground garage, and zebras from a neighboring property owned by Lőrinc Mészáros, Orbán's best friend and Hungary's richest man.
• 02Hungarian independent MP Ákos Hadházy organized 'safari tours' to the property in autumn as protests, with zebra imagery becoming a protest symbol across the country.
• 03Hungarians are voting on April 12 in an election widely seen as the most consequential since the country's 1990 transition to democracy, with most polls suggesting Orbán's Fidesz party could lose power after 16 years.
• 04The government rewrote election laws, placed loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of the country's media, and retooled the judiciary during Orbán's time in office, according to former Fidesz member Zoltán Kész.
• 05Péter Magyar, a former member of Fidesz's inner circle, began speaking out against the party's corruption while siphoning state funds, and his hastily formed party climbed to the top of polls.
• 06Nearly a dozen far-right leaders including Italy's Giorgia Meloni, France's Marine Le Pen, and Germany's Alice Weidel endorsed Orbán in a January video; US Vice President JD Vance campaigned with Orbán and parroted Fidesz campaign strategy.
• 07Orbán's government is alleged to have spent millions of euros on US lobbyists to cast Hungary as a model for Trump and others, according to Dalibor Roháč of the American Enterprise Institute.
• 08Hungary ranks as the most corrupt country in the EU and has faced accusations of no longer being a full democracy, while plunging in press freedom rankings.

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Hungarians voted on April 12 in an election viewed as the most significant since the country's 1990 democratic transition, with most polls indicating Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party could lose power after 16 years. The vote took place amid corruption scandals involving Orbán's inner circle and a surging opposition movement led by Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz member who accused the party of siphoning state funds while inflation soared and public services deteriorated. The election gained global significance as far-right leaders including US Vice President JD Vance campaigned for Orbán, with analysts describing Hungary's governance as a model for illiberal movements internationally.