Political Capital

Orban's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, the most vocal critic of the EU, is also full of praise. He sees the Turkic states, whose energy ministers he recently hosted in Budapest, as offering "more than a pure energy friendship".

Party leader Laszlo Toroczkai has called the rise of Our Homeland, from its founding four years ago to a party in parliament, "a miracle, but only the beginning."

"We want to save Hungary and restore its former glory," he said on the eve of the election.

It's the kind of glory, however, that makes many shiver.

In this modified history, critics say Orban has cast himself as saviour of a pure nation steeped in Christian values but besieged by external threats: migrants, Muslims, liberal ideologues.

For the story to be believable, academic, educational and cultural institutions have to play along.