Outrage over what has been labeled the “slave law” has sparked protests across the country and has united a fractured opposition against Orbán. A broad anti-government movement has swept the country, with thousands of Hungarians taking to the streets in the past several weeks (interrupted only by the holiday lull). Student groups, unions, and labor organizations have promised to go on strike in the coming days. The uproar may not topple Orbán or oust his Fidesz party from government, but Hungary’s prime minister now faces the most sustained popular movement against him since he took office in 2010.

“It is not about party politics,” Peter Ungar, a Green Party MP from western Hungary, told me. “It is about the 500,000 workers who will be affected by this new law.”

The persistence of the mounting opposition movement against Orbán has significance beyond Hungary’s borders. Orbán has served as a model for nativists the world over for his anti-immigrant rhetoric and his refusal to accept the European Union’s “migrant quotas”—an attempt by European officials to evenly distribute refugees fleeing to the continent across the bloc’s 28 member states. Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, has praised Orbán as “heroic” and has promised to “spend a lot of time in Hungary” before European Parliament elections in May, while the far right, from internet trolls to Representative Steve King of Iowa, praise Orbán as a nationalist visionary in web forums, blogs, and videos.

When I visited Budapest just after the law was officially signed last month, thousands marched from the Parliament building on the Danube across the river to Buda Castle, once the home of Hungarian kings and now a symbol of the country’s history. By then, protests had been running almost nonstop for three weeks. Demonstrators eagerly shouted “Orbán egy géci!”—a chant that calls Orbán a swear word and that inspired the shorthand of the movement: #O1G. One placard read Sex, Drugs, and Overtime, while another poked fun at Orbán’s spending of EU funds on the construction of a train line, famed for its low passenger rate, that transports riders a grand total of six kilometers, from Orbán’s small, central-Hungarian hometown to a neighboring village. Roughly translated, the poster read: Roses are red / Violets are blue / There’s no brakes / On this Orbán choo-choo. In an emailed statement to The Atlantic, a Hungarian government spokesperson denied that any EU funds were misused and blamed the protests on various outside forces.

Read: The risks to freedom in Hungary

In recent years, the Hungarian leader has successfully circumscribed the media and single-handedly rewritten the constitution to cement his political control (with more changes promised). His government has also stacked previously independent institutions with loyal allies—another law passed in December allows the justice minister to handpick judges in administrative courts, drastically hindering judicial independence. Orbán’s election victory last year gave him a new mandate and renewed momentum to push his agenda. Opposing political parties were weak and fractured, and any popular protest attempts to challenge him had been sporadic and ineffective. The “slave law” appears to have changed that dynamic, though, highlighting not only Orbán’s intransigence when it comes to allowing in immigrants, but also the few levers available to his government to address the labor shortage.