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You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon.
Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán has been in power for 15 years. And during that time, he has steadily chipped away at Hungary's democracy. In this speech in March, the 61-year-old leader told supporters there is a special place in hell reserved for opposition politicians, judges, journalists and those in civil society.
NPR's Rob Schmitz takes us to Budapest, where he found that Orban's strategies are being studied and sometimes copied by politicians in other democracies. Atop a cobblestone hill overlooking the Danube River and the medieval lanes of Budapest, tour groups surround a changing of the guard ceremony in front of a 13th century Baroque castle.
Across the square, construction crews rebuild a centuries-old palace complex. That's where politician Akos Hadhaji guides a tour of his own. We are at the Buda Castle, and if you're looking for a symbolic place for corruption, power and the waste of public money, this is a beautiful venue for that, says Hadhaji as a Chinese tour group marches by.
Hothozsi is an independent member of Hungary's parliament. He routinely gives tours showcasing the corruption of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government. The offices for the Prime Minister and his ministers used to be down there, next to the parliament building, he says, pointing to Budapest's other big pointy-towered tourist attraction. But Orbán decided he wanted to move here, into a castle.
Even Matyos Rakosi, Hungary's most brutal communist dictator, refused to move his office here. But Orban wants to play king, says Hadhaji, so the National Gallery may soon be forced to move out of the castle to make way for him. All this construction, Hadhaji says, represents Orban's gift to cronies in the form of lucrative contracts while ensuring Orban can survey his kingdom from above the capital.
Viktor Orban is in his fourth consecutive term as prime minister of Hungary. In that time, he has dismantled democratic checks and balances, taking control of the country's media, civil society and universities, and consolidated power in himself and his Fidesz party. His step-by-step dismantling of Hungary's democracy is a point of fascination for political scientists around the world, including those advising the Trump administration.
But Hadhozsi says Orbán is an easy read. It's not like Orbán is a genius politician, he says. He received his sheet music from Vladimir Putin, who came into power when oil prices were high. He channeled that money into oligarchs, and in return they bought up Russia's independent media. Orbán franchised that model here in Hungary, says Hadhozsi. Except he used European Union funds.
The European Union has since frozen funding to Hungary, but not before Orbán took control of much of the country's independent media. What's left of Hungary's independent press can be found in nooks and crannies like this one. In a tiny apartment in central Budapest, a few dozen journalists from what used to be prominent newspapers that were one by one forced to shut down by Orbán's government have formed their own newspaper –
Moger Hang, or Hungarian Voice. So we started from zero. Csaba Lukács is managing director of the paper. Nobody was brave enough to print in Hungary, so we have to find a printing company outside from the country. Until now, our newspaper is printed in Slovakia, in Bratislava, so we have to organize every week...
transportation of the newspaper. Hungarian Voice is funded almost entirely through subscriptions, says Lukács. He says it's the only conservative paper in Hungary that is not part of a state propaganda apparatus. Lukács says Orbán has stripped away press freedom in a step-by-step process over the years. We are not yet in Turkey because the journalists will be not jailed yet. We are not in Russia because nobody was falling out from the windows yet.
And day by day, he says, Viktor Orbán's attacks on the media and civil society get worse. Last month, in a speech commemorating Hungary's 1848 revolution against the Habsburg Empire, Orbán said, We will dismantle the financial machinery that bought politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-civil organizations and political activists.
He called these groups stink bugs who have survived the winter and need to be eradicated. A special circle of hell, declared Orbán, awaits them. Then a bug will wait for them in the pock. We know you.
Political scientist Petro Kreko says Orbán is targeting the last bastions of Western democracy in Hungary. Orbán just thinks that the West is unable to survive and democratic and liberal practices of the West have weakened the West. Kreko has mapped out the process Orbán has taken to dismantle Hungary's democracy. Orbán began, he says, by weakening Hungary's courts, filling them with loyalists.
He then applied pressure on media companies, either turning them into state propaganda or putting them out of business. Then, says Greco, Orban took control over universities, appointing leaders loyal to him.
Greco says Orbán focused on reading Hungary of any institution capable of checking his power. And he says he sees similarities to how President Donald Trump is carrying out his second term in office. The difference, says Greco, is the pace at which Trump is operating. I think Trump went further in two months than Orbán could in 15 years.
The United States, it reminds me of a constitutional coup where everything happens very rapidly. In public speeches, President Trump has called Orbán fantastic, respected, and said nobody is a better leader than the Hungarian prime minister.
And while Orban has boasted that his party has shared his strategies with Trump advisers, Greco doubts the help was very meaningful. He says Hungary serves as more of a conservative fantasy land that mega-Republicans can aspire to. So Hungary as the country where you don't have immigrants, where you don't have
That's because, says Kreko, Hungary is surrounded by Europe and its open society.
Budapest's annual pride parade is one of Europe's largest. Last month, Orban's party pushed a new law through parliament that has banned any assembly that, quote, promotes homosexuality in order to, quote, protect children. This week, Hungary's parliament passed an amendment to the constitution doing the same.
At a cafe in Budapest, Pride Parade spokesperson Johanna Majercsik says this new law will likely go further than banning the Pride Parade. So if the government succeeds in banning such a peaceful protest, that means that in the future they will be able to ban or restrict any other peaceful event, any other peaceful demonstration organized by another social group. Many other Hungarians agree.
After this public assembly law passed, tens of thousands of people halted traffic and bridges in the capital in what have become weekly protests. Critics of the new law say Orbán is using the LGBTQ community as a tool to shut down the right of Hungarian citizens to freely assemble in peaceful protests like these, particularly at a time when the opposition to Orbán's rule is beginning to gain momentum.
But political analysts say Orban, nearing the end of his fourth consecutive term as Hungary's prime minister, appears to be, yet again, adapting his step-by-step strategy to hold on to power for as long as he can. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Budapest. That's the state of the world from NPR. Thanks for listening.
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