From Budapest to Washington, democracies are reacting to illiberal leaders. A video commentary by Claudio Cerasa

Trump lost the mid-term elections, and this defeat adds to a series of election results in recent months that have proved wrong those who claim democracies are on their last legs as soon as someone they dislike comes to power. Claudio Cerasa, a guest on Coffee Break on La7, makes this point. In Israel, voter turnout was extremely high. In Serbia, the student movement won with over 52 per cent of the vote, the highest turnout since the end of Yugoslavia. In Hungary, an autocrat was ousted at the polls. In Brazil, Lula overturned his first-round deficit, partly by bringing back to the polls those who had previously abstained. 

In America, too, the dams had held before the election. The Supreme Court and the federal courts had reined in the president on immigration and tariffs, whilst investors had tempered his protectionism through their decisions in the markets. Now Trump is showing himself to be unusually conciliatory and says he knows many Democrats who are ready to work with him. He faces two paths: attempting not to go down in history as the most hated president – a very difficult feat – or using the next two years to look after his family’s business and forge even closer ties with autocrats.