Budapest, Hungary —
The defeat of Viktor Orbán means Hungary will have a change in government for the first time since 2010.
Although polls had suggested a decisive victory for the opposition Tisza party, many of its supporters refused to allow themselves to imagine what victory might feel like. After 16 years of rule by Orbán’s illiberal Fidesz party, the electoral playing field had been so tilted against his opponents that some questioned whether an alternative was possible.
So when Orbán conceded defeat to his opponent, Péter Magyar, it felt to some like regime change. András Petöcz, a writer and poet, said the feeling reminded him of being in Budapest during the collapse of…