Hungary: Just How Radical Is Viktor Orban?

In the spring of 1989, a Hungarian student radical named Viktor Orban made a shocking public demand: Russian soldiers, go home. Many Hungarians feared bloody Soviet reprisals. Instead, the tearing down of the Iron Curtain a few months later made the 26-year-old anti-communist agitator a national hero.

Today, at 35, Orban is poised to become Hungary's next Prime Minister after a stunning upset victory by his center-right Hungarian Civic Party over the incumbent Socialists in parliamentary elections on May 24. And once again, his rhetoric is setting off alarms. Budapest's stock market is off 11% since the May 10 first-round vote, when Orban's party first showed its strength. "Hungary has entered a period of tarnished credibility," worries Spencer Jakab, equity analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston.