One veto less

Mr Orbán's defeat hands Europe a genuine opening. Europe is unlikely to use it well enough.

For years, one country with a population of 9.5 million people held an effective veto over the direction of a bloc of 450 million. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister who has governed since 2010, used that veto to block a 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine, to water down EU sanctions on Russia, and to obstruct a range of collective European decision…