By Stefano De OliveiraThe victory of Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party two weeks ago in Hungary’s parliamentary elections means that we will almost certainly continue to see resistance to central directives from Brussels from his government. Campaigning on an anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic platform, his party’s projected two-thirds majority in parliament grants him the necessary leverage to keep refusing to comply with EU refugee quotas and to maintain the controversial border fence built in 2015 while still managing to cooperate with more moderate EU centre-right parties such as Germany’s CDU. A key part of Mr. Orban’s campaign was focused on the prominent Hungarian-born financier and philanthropist George Soros, namely on preventing the spread of his influence by proposing legislation to ban NGO’s that support migration and are alledged by Mr. Orabn to present a national security risk, organizations which Mr. Soros is known to support.Overall, Mr. Orban is adamant of his role in protecting Christian Europe against what he sees as a Muslim invasion, and the policies which he enacts based on this vision are what garner criticism from the UN, Brussels and liberal politicians both inside Hungary and across Europe. Apart from legislation relating to this specific issue, along with a general consolidation of power in the government, media and judicial sectors, which has all been done legally, he has pursued largely successful economic policies which have reduced unemployment, maintained steady economic growth and kept inflation at acceptable levels. Indeed, several right-wing leaders from ex-Warsaw Pact countries fought against their communist regimes in favour of liberalism and openness, including Mr. Orban, who once used a Soros grant to study the history of civil society at Oxford University. Now, it seems, Mr. Soros’ influence has gone too far.The general threat to the EU status-quo comes not only from Hungary but also the so-called Visegrád Group, also known as the V4, which constitutes the nations of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Along with Austria, these countries currently all display ‘right-wing’ leanings, and have in one way or another directly challenged various efforts from the EU to enforce control over its member states, most prominently regarding the issues of migration and civil liberties. And while the idea of leaving the political union is still far-fetched, their political trajectories have allowed them to flirt with far-right ideals while still managing to remain acceptable to Western European centre-right allies. This tightrope act has threatened the current direction of the EU by acting as a lawful counterbalance and fuel for the growing populist movement gaining ground across the continent. If the EU’s calls for reform and acceptance continue to go unheeded in Hungary, a tipping point will eventually be reached where the political union either backs down or steps up its efforts, neither of which bodes well for liberalism. Defiance to Brussels has been firmly established in the East – we have yet to see if the West will follow.