This book was written during the first months of the COVID pandemic, at the 10 year anniversary of the Orban government assuming office. However, it has a wider scope than merely to catalogue the last decade, to serve as a statistical compilation. Hungary’s history was always more exciting than that, and this is particularly true for the last decade. The authors believe that we have no hope of understanding 2020 without understanding the fight for sovereignty in 2010, 1990, and even 1956.

Similarly, governance can only be understood through grasping the underlying philosophy and strategy, as well as the room for maneuver available at any given time.  Naturally, this book will endeavor to show the consistent decision-making logic, the multi-purpose approach to government that has become the hallmark of the conservative Hungarian cabinet and its main innovation. This alone wouldn’t have sufficed, as the result would have been sterile, artificial and alien to reality. Thus, this book will also shed light on the circumstances surrounding individual decisions, and the story of how various fields were transformed, be it the transfer of power, economic crisis management, winning re-election, or the years of economic rise. 2022 differs from 2010 in more ways than just the elimination of foreign currency debt and the rise in the number of people eligible for personal income tax, and the reader will find the most striking ones in this book.