Hungary had free elections in April 1990 and the communists were out of government. They weren't out of the media. The same people who had been singing about how happy Lenin's birthday made them were still in the television, the radio and the press.

Orbán is the democrat. He risked his neck for democracy — that's more than most of us have done.

In 1998, at the age of 35, he became Hungary's youngest elected prime minister  and the youngest prime minister in Europe. Orbán lost the next two elections in 2002 and 2006, but only just. One of the factors that cost him victory were constant accusations, disseminated by the ex-communists, of anti-Semitism and the suggestion that he wanted to do a deal with the far-Right to gain power (the same accusations of cosying up to the skinheads were made this last election and picked up by the British press, no matter how many times Orbán made it clear that he never would).

Despite Fidesz establishing a Holocaust memorial day in 2000, these slurs stick. I know many intelligent, educated, worldly Hungarians (some Jewish, some not) who fell for it. Ten years ago I had a Hungarian visitor who saw a book about Fidesz on my desk and commented that she had liked them but that they were now "too right-wing and anti-Semitic". I hadn't been to Hungary for a while and was out of touch. So I asked her if she could give me an example of any anti-Semitic actions by Orbán? No. Could she give me an example of any anti-Semitic remarks by Orbán? No. So why, I asked, did she think he was anti-Semitic? "Come on, don't be so naive. You don't have to do anything or say anything anti-Semitic to be anti-Semitic."

A letter from the distinguished pianist András Schiff published recently in the Washington Post, questioning Hungary's fitness for the EU Presidency, followed this pattern. Schiff (who no longer lives in Hungary) parks Orbán's name next to a list of "racism, discrimination against the Roma, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, chauvinism and reactionary nationalism". As always, no evidence is cited against Orbán (because there isn't any), but somehow, mysteriously, all these ills (found in every country) are  his fault. It was gentlemanly of Schiff to stop before he got to bestiality and witchcraft.

I should add that for good measure Fidesz was also attacked from the other direction, for being Jewish ("Fidesz=Zsidesz" was painted on walls during elections, "Fidesz=Jewdesz") and there was a texting campaign which claimed Orbán was Roma and beat his wife. It's a wonder that anyone goes into Hungarian politics.

In a famous zoological appraisal of Hungarian politics, the economist (and former communist) László Lengyel wrote: "The tiger can't help being born the way it is, living off meat and not green leaves. Viktor Orbán has a tiger's nature. A soft tread. He circles his victim. He plays with it. Mercilessly kills it. There are those who don't like mercilessness. That's a matter of taste.