"Hungary comes first with us." Victor Orban electoral campaign poster in Miskolc, Hungary, March 2018. NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved. The last couple of years have seen a worrisome trend of rising illiberalism across democratic societies. President Trump’s victory, the Brexit vote, emerging right-wing forces in Germany – these are all examples that the liberal democratic consensus is in serious crisis.
The case of Hungary, whose fall into illiberalism starting in 2010, preceding all others, offers key lessons to understanding the causes of this crisis. After gradually coming to terms with the nature of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s regime, the international community has once again been shocked by the results of the Hungarian elections in April. However, most observers seem to utterly miss the angle that makes the story of Hungary's last decades a case-study with international implications. Most observers utterly miss the angle that makes the story of Hungary's last decades a case-study with international implications.
