Hungary's 'Orbanization' Is Worrying Europe

Welund Wednesday 19 Nov 2014

It's quite possible Orban fits this model, his party is interventionist compared with the 'Socialists' (liberals, actually). But if you get rid of Orban, you get Jobbik, probably.

Welund Thursday 20 Nov 2014

November 18th, 2014
Orbán’s office offers up HUF 500 million for “religious and moral education” | Politics.hu

By Zoltán Szécsi
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The office of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is stepping in to provide HUF 521.5 million in supplemental funding for the country’s churches to provide “religious and moral education.”
A governmental resolution signed by Orbán ordered the funds to be deployed immediately from the surplus reserves of the Prime Minister’s Office, which serves to cover certain special measures.
The churches that receive the money have to account for the expenditures and pay back any funds not spent by next July. The proposed budget for 2015 has already allotted HUF 2.3 billion for religious and moral education, including the funding of textbooks

Ingrid • 2 days ago
I hope it is a joke.

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wolfi Ingrid • 2 days ago
No this money is for all the churches that Orbán has been associated with - afaik there are several of them that he joined once ...

Nikolai Thursday 4 Dec 2014

Hungary fuming after McCain calls PM Orban ‘neo-fascist dictator’

Published time: December 03, 2014 18:39
Edited time: December 04, 2014 01:18

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U.S. Senator John McCain (Reuters/Ruben Sprich)
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EU , Politics , Protest , Scandal , USA

Hungary’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the US envoy after US Senator John McCain called Prime Minister Viktor Orban a “neo-fascist dictator.” Washington is incensed with Orban for seeking closer ties with Russia.
The US charge d’affaires, Andre Goodfriend, will be asked for an explanation for McCain’s comments.
"The Hungarian government ... rejects the words of Senator John McCain regarding the Hungarian prime minister and the relationship of Hungary and Russia," Levente Magyar, state secretary at the ministry, told national news agency MTI, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile the country’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said: "Hungarian citizens ... articulated a very clear opinion that everyone ought to respect,” referring to the victory of Orban’s center-right Fidesz party in parliamentary, European and local elections.
McCain’s comments came in a highly charged speech at the US Senate on Tuesday, where he hit out at President Barack Obama’s appointment of Hollywood producer Colleen Bell as the new US ambassador to Budapest.
"I am not against political appointees... I understand how the game is played, but ... [Hungary] ... is on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with Vladimir Putin, and we're going to send the producer of 'The Bold and The Beautiful' as the ambassador," he told the Senate, Reuters reported.
The US State Department however does not share Sen. McCain's hawkish view.
“I think it’s no surprise that there are a number of views Senator McCain has espoused that we don’t share," Marie Harf, Deputy Spokesperson for the US State Department told reporters. “As an Administration, I would put that in this category, of course.”
Harf went on to defend Washington's choice in appointing a new ambassador to Hungary saying , “we believe she will be a very good ambassador, [and] are happy she’s been confirmed.”
Last month, AFP reported Orban as saying that Hungary's relations with Russia have become “entangled in geopolitical and military and security policy issues.” The PM said that the US was retaliating for Budapest's willingness to endorse the South Stream gas pipeline, as well as a deal that would see Russian firm Rosatom develop Hungary’s nuclear power.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (AFP Photo/Attila Kisennedek)

Under a deal worth up to €10 billion, Rosatom will build a 2,000 megawatt addition to Hungary's state-owned nuclear power plant, MVM Paksi Atomeromu. Russia is Hungary’s largest trade partner outside of the EU, with exports worth $3.4 billion in 2013. It is highly dependent on Russian energy.
“We don’t want to get close to anyone, and we don’t intend to move away from anybody. We are not pursuing a pro-Russian policy but a pro-Hungarian policy,” Orban said, adding that expansion of the nuclear plant was the “only possible means” to lower dependence on external energy resources.
Orban has been highly critical of US and EU sanctions imposed on Russia for what he says is Moscow’s “perceived role” in the conflict in Ukraine. Speaking in August, he said the measures are like “shooting oneself in the foot.”
“The sanctions policy pursued by the West, that is, ourselves, a necessary consequence of which, has been what the Russians are doing, causes more harm to us than to Russia,” Reuters quoted Orban as saying on the radio.
READ MORE: EU sanctions like 'shooting oneself in the foot' - Hungary PM

Niccolo and Donkey Thursday 4 Dec 2014

Hyperborealis Aeterna

McCain has inherited the Hungarian portfolio from Tom Lantos, the Magyar Jew, who passed away. The Soros-funded vultures are already descending on Hungary, which is being given 'the treatment'.

Asterion Wednesday 18 Mar 2015

Far-right Jobbik is almost the most popular party in Hungary

from portfolio.hu
March 17, 2015, 3:21 pm

The approval rating of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party stagnated among eligible voters, whereas the far-right nationalist Jobbik party, which recorded its biggest popularity ever in February, increased its appeal further, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos between March 6 and 13, the pollster said on Tuesday.

Fidesz had an approval rating of 21% among eligible voters in March and in February too, while Jobbik’s rating rose to 18% from 16%. The opposition Socialist Party (MSZP) stood at 11% a month ago and 12% in March. Ipsos also reported that the Democratic Coalition (DK), a formation of former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány, continues to linger at 4%, while green party LMP had 3%, Együtt (Together) and PM each had 1%. The ratio of those keeping their distance from any party dropped to 37% from 40%.

The latest figures indicate that Fidesz has 1.7 million voters, whereas Jobbik is close on its tail with nearly 1.5 million supporters, followed by the MSZP with 1 million people backing it. The voter base is no bigger than 300,000 people for DK, about 250,000 for LMP and PM and Együtt have a largely 100,000-strong supporting group each.

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According to Ipsos data, this was the first time since general elections last April when the approval rating of Fidesz among voters with a firm party preference dropped to below 40% (the February reading), to 37% in March.

The extremist Jobbik party recorded its highest score yet in this category as well, boosting its approval rating to 28% from 25%, while the Socialists enjoy a 19% approval rating. DK had 7% after 6% in February and LMP’s support fell to 4% from 5%. Együtt and PM would get 1% of the votes in this group, which marks no change compared to February.

Ipsos said the success of the far-right Jobbik party has to do with the fact that it still has behind it nine tenths of those who had voted for it in April 2014 and has managed to garner new supporters too. The survey shows that one tenth of those who cast their vote for Fidesz last April, i.e. about 200,000 people, have joined the radical right wing since then but Jobbik has also managed to gain the support of more than one tenth of those who had not cast their ballot at all, i.e. about 350,000 voters.

The national radical party found support mostly among those in their 20s and 30s, people with a low level of education and those without a job. Jobbik managed to raise strong interest and sympathy in these groups, Ipsos said, adding that the party was more popular than Fidesz in the U30 age group in February and it maintains its lead 21:17. It also noted that for those who mentioned Jobbik as their second-favourite party said they were dissatisfied with the general situation of the country, adding that because of this the party should expect an actual vote from them soon.

Asterion Monday 11 May 2015

Hungary’s Jobbik builds far-right media empire
May 10, 2015 5:43 pm | Christopher Adam | hungarianfreepress.com

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán isn’t the only one trying to build a new media empire, after his public conflict with long-time friend, media magnate and oligarch Lajos Simicska. Jobbik leader Gábor Vona, who is a more astute politician than just about anyone else in the Hungarian opposition, is building a media empire of his own. And this media empire is looking quite different from the rabidly antisemitic and racist Kuruc.info, and it also bears no resemblance to the tired, dry essays that appeared in previous far-right publications created by Jobbik’s predecessors, such as the Magyar Fórum weekly, once edited by the late István Csurka. Mr. Vona’s media looks, sounds and feels very much like Mr. Vona himself, following his new, “improved,” gentle and warm/fuzzy makeover. Jobbik’s media voice is geared towards young Hungarians, it has a distinctly irreverent feel to it, which is similar to liberal, youthful publications such as 444.hu or Index, it tends to combine tabloid-type pieces with more serious material and is laced with more a implicit anti-Roma sentiment than before. Rather than overt racism, these publications and media organs encourage readers to draw their own racist conclusions instead.

Earlier today, Mr. Vona encouraged his 255,000 followers on Facebook to support the party’s growing media portfolio, especially as the party expects more attacks from political opponents, following efforts to turn it into a potential governing party. He noted that Jobbik-supporters and those interested in the party, should rely on three sources of news: the Alfahír.hu online news site, Jobbik’s N1TV online television broadcast and Barikád , the party’s central organ. “I realize that in the coming months, they will shoot at us from every angle, in order to destroy what we’ve started. The lies, attacks and distortion will come from every direction, so please don’t believe everything that you hear or read about us,” wrote Mr. Vona on Facebook. The Jobbik leader is an avid Facebook user and he then posted another item earlier Sunday: the party has covered all bases and those with more academic inclinations are encouraged to read the quarterly journal, Magyar Hüperión.

So what does Jobbik’s media empire look like? Let’s start with their online television broadcast , N1TV. The broadcast includes daily, generally professionally-edited videos posted to YouTube and some regular weekly television shows. Sándor Pörzse, a former parliamentarian, now works for N1TV. Many of the videos appear to be lighter forms of entertainment, but in fact are very much politically charged. One example is a show where two men dress up as sixteenth century knights and head out to Budapest’s party district on a Saturday night. They then sit down to chat with young Hungarians who are either coming from a party, or headed to one. In the most recent episode, the “knight” asks a young female about her views on ISIS and whether she agrees with Prime Minister Orbán, who sent Hungarian troops to fight alongside coalition partners. One of the knights then entertains the young women by quoting – verbatim – passages from the Koran, after the smiling, cheerful party-goers confirm that they do not feel that ISIS poses a threat to Hungary. The other knight is fluent in English and starts chatting with visibly intoxicated tourists in Budapest’s city centre, who endorse N1TV.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/IQQ3-2Px1Ec

This N1TV show best exemplifies Jobbik’s attempt to come across as fun-loving and dynamic; a party that is innocuous, doesn’t always take itself too seriously and is comprised of people who are just like any average twenty-something Hungarian. The programming also includes weekly interviews each Friday with Mr. Vona, who uses this medium to provide “ rebuttals ” to Mr. Orbán’s weekly Friday morning radio broadcasts.

Interestingly, N1TV shows are produced by a former, prominent HírTv celebrity called Szabolcs Kisberk. Mr. Kisberk appeared in HírTV’s weekly show Célpont . While most of his colleagues decided to jump ship after Mr. Simicska’s conflict with Mr. Orbán, and were sure to display their loyalty to the prime minister, Mr. Kisberk decided to hitch his wagon to Jobbik. The border between Fidesz and Jobbik has always been porous, so this need not come as a surprise. It’s worth keeping in mind that the ultra-Orbánist Echo TV, owned by oligarch Gábor Széles, is often more extremist in its right-wing programming than the “new” Jobbik.

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Alfahír’s reporter, Adrián Magvasi, interviews Mr. Kisberk. Photo: Alfahír.

The online Jobbik newspaper, Alfahír, interviewed Mr. Kisberk, after he jumped ship. He told Adrián Magvasi, one of Alfahír’s young reporters, that he had several job offers after quitting HírTV, but he chose N1TV because he feels that it provides him with the greatest degree of professional freedom, and also because he has big plans to turn the still relatively small online broadcaster into Hungary’s primary internet-based television station. “Younger viewers have almost totally given up on traditional television and obtain most of their information from the internet. This is becoming more common even among the older generations,” said Mr. Kisberk.

The reporter producing the interview, Adrián Magvasi, is one of nine young contributors and editors at Alfahír. Their irreverent and informal approach is similar to that of 444.hu, but–of course–we are still dealing with a far-right publication. One of the regular contributors, Dániel Kovács, recently wrote a racist piece on Roma in a small village in eastern Hungary, who were waiting in line to receive aid and livestock from pro-Fidesz sociologist and adviser Zsuzsa Hegedűs. Ms. Hegedűs runs a charity and she showed up in the village in a government-owned Audi, with associates who brought along live pigs and chickens to distribute. The article’s racism is different in tone, in that it is slightly more implicit and is generally irreverent in tone. More than 2,500 people shared the report and Mr. Kovács’s photos on Facebook.

Alfahír is closely tied to Jobbik, although they are careful not to make it seem as though it is simply a dry, party paper spewing propaganda. Yet a number of Jobbik politicians are contributors and others, like the 31 year old Tamás Nótin, are municipal city councilors and also members of Alfahír’s editorial board . Mr. Nótin’s articles seem to focus on foreign policy news and on the Roma minority in Hungary. Beyond the implicit racism directed at the Roma and a very dreary view of American foreign policy, Alfarhír also seem preoccupied with the Hit Gyülekezete church, a Pentecostal mega-church in Hungary, which has traditionally developed close ties to both the liberal politicians of today’s opposition, as well as more recently to the Orbán government.

It’s worth watching and tracking how Jobbik expands its media presence, and how this media reflects the new efforts at creating a “big tent” party ahead of 2018, spearheaded by Mr. Vona.

Niccolo and Donkey Wednesday 27 May 2015

Asterion Bronze Age Pervert

The shitheads at Foreign Policy are worried:

It's Getting Ugly in Hungary

Desperate to shore up his flagging popularity, Viktor Orbán is embracing the far right.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who notoriously declared in the summer of 2014 that his party was going “to build an illiberal nation state,” is garnering criticism again. This time, liberal politicians and human rights NGOs are calling him out for his extreme anti-immigrant stance and talk of returning the death penalty.

On April 28, following a murder in a tobacco shop in the south-western city of Kaposvár, Orbán argued for “keeping the issue of the death penalty on the agenda,” noting that the deterrent effect of other measures has proved insufficient. Hungary abolished capital punishment in 1990 after the fall of communism, and the reintroduction of this extreme measure would conflict with the basic principles of the EU, which Hungary joined in 2004. Rebecca Harms, co-president of the Green party grouping in the European Parliament, noted that

Orbán’s comments “underlined his continued drift away from European values.”Orbán’s comments “underlined his continued drift away from European values.”
Moreover, while EU leaders were preparing for emergency talks in Brussels after about 900 African migrants drowned in the Mediterranean just outside Libyan waters, Orbán’s government was launching “ a national consultation ” on immigration. This month, the government is preparing to mail Hungarian citizens 8 million questionnaires containing 12 questions about immigration. Though framed as a consultative, democratic process, a closer look shows that the true intent of the questionnaire is to vilify Hungary’s immigrants, fan xenophobic sentiment, and promote harsh anti-immigrant measures.

The questionnaire begins by raising largely imaginary concerns about terrorism in Hungary and immediately asks: “Do you agree that mistaken immigration policies contribute to the spread of terrorism?” It reveals the government’s stark Euroskepticism in alleging that the EU’s “policies on immigration and terrorism” have failed, while implicitly asking Hungarians to support new, “stricter immigration regulations in opposition to Brussels.” The questionnaire also refers to “the Hungarian people” ( magyar emberek ) rather than “Hungarian citizens” ( magyar állampolgárok ), thus framing the immigration issue in ethnic terms and appealing to xenophobic sentiment. The “stricter immigration regulations” it mentions could involve, as it implies, building “internment camps” where illegal immigrants would be held before they were returned “to their own countries.”

It is hardly surprising that Louis Michel, Belgium’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, commented in response that “this stigma that systematically links the migrant with a criminal can only come from a far-right populism where xenophobia is at the very root of ideology.” Indeed, in the European context, calls for reintroducing capital punishment, Euroskepticism, ethnic nationalism, and harsh anti-immigration rhetoric are usually associated with far-right parties. The question now being raised is whether Orbán has effectively joined the far right, thus making Hungary the first EU country to be ruled by a far-right government. Add to this Orbán’s earlier statements about “illiberal democracy” as a model of governance, and the question appears even more justified — and troubling.

Some commentators argue that Orbán “likes to dislike Brussels,” implying that his Euroskepticism is a means to gain leverage in negotiations with the EU. Yet the policies and practices of Orbán’s government cannot be dismissed merely as an expedient tactic. Democracy is indeed declining in Hungary as registered, in particular, by the Economist Intelligence Unit . Since Orbán’s party, Fidesz, returned to power in 2010, he has modified electoral laws to its benefit, taken control of the judiciary, appealed to ultranationalism as a source of political cohesion, and undermined media freedom. If Orbán has indeed become a far-right leader, this would be an easy explanation for developments in Hungary, but the situation may be more nuanced. The major problem Orbán currently faces is that Fidesz is — despite his best efforts — losing popularity. At the end of 2014, public opinion polls registered a 12 percent drop in support for the party, and its rating continued to slide into 2015. This is not simply a problem for Fidesz; rather, it is a personal problem for Orbán, who needs to maintain his leadership of a party in which other high-ranking members may be associating its decline with Orbán himself.

Polls have shown that Fidesz has most likely been losing votes to the even more right-wing Jobbik party and the Hungarian Socialist Party. Partly because of Fidesz’s decline and partly due to Jobbik’s successful strategy of deradicalization , Orbán’s party has lost to Jobbik in a recent by-election that has become a historic moment for the far right: it has become Jobbik’s first ever individual constituency seat in parliament.

Orbán’s far-right rhetoric may be an attempt to recover right-wing support his party has been losing to Jobbik. The apparent moderation of Jobbik has opened a vast ideological area further to the right that Fidesz can now venture upon. Curiously, however, only 1 percent of the Hungarian population is concerned about terrorism and only 3 percent are worried about immigration, according to Eurobarometer surveys . Both of these percentages are below European averages. Therefore, Orbán may be unable to deploy Jobbik’s far-right card in full measure. Moreover, Fidesz is blocked from using Jobbik’s most successful issue, that of populism: Fidesz is unable to claim that it is defending “ordinary people” against the “elites,” because Fidesz is the ruling elite.

What the Hungarian public is genuinely concerned about is unemployment (50 percent), the economy (30 percent), and health and social security (21 percent). Orbán’s government bears full responsibility for unpopular policies in these areas. Since Orbán cannot admit his own failures, he needs a scapegoat, and his harsh Euroskeptic rhetoric indicates that he has chosen Brussels. But Orbán will need to try hard to convince Hungarians that their country’s domestic problems are Brussels’ fault: Hungarians’ trust towards the EU is higher than the EU average.

It seems that pressure on Orbán’s government will be increasing. Fidesz has not provided any good answers to growing social concerns, apart from turning to Euroskepticism and right-wing populism that the party can’t even fully employ. It’s possible that, in desperation, For this reason, the EU should closely follow Hungarian developments and remember that Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union clearly states that “the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.” The Treaty on the European Union also provides a basis to counter tendencies that are in violation of the above-mentioned values, including suspending member countries’ voting rights in the Council. If Orbán continues to be tempted to restore his popularity through increasingly non-democratic measures, the EU will find itself obliged to do just that.

Niccolo and Donkey Monday 27 Jul 2015

PM Orbán: Europe Should Be Preserved For Europeans

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“The question now is not merely what kind of Europe we, Hungarians would like to live in, but whether that which we call Europe today will at all survive”, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán said at the 26th Bálványos Summer School and Student Camp held in Tusnádfürdő (Baile Tusnad) of Transylvania (Romania).

“Our answer is clear: we would like Europe to be preserved for the Europeans”, he added. The Hungarian Prime Minister emphasized that modern-day mass migration is a consequence of political processes. In his view, the real threat is not coming from war zones, but from the depths of Africa. The Hungarian Premier criticized harshly both the European and Hungarian left-wing elites, which, he said, do not perceive immigration as a source of danger but as an opportunity. According to Viktor Orbán, the left believes that the escalation of migration may definitively debilitate, or even eliminate, national boundaries, and this would constitute the attainment of the long-term objective of the left in a historical perspective.

“While the Hungarian left incited against Hungarians beyond the borders in 2004, they would today readily embrace illegal migrants, and would await them with open arms. These people, these politicians quite simply do not like the Hungarian people”, Orbán concluded. He added: if the left had been given the chance to form a government in 2014, “within a year or two, we would not recognise our country; we would be like a refugee camp”. As for the fence on Hungary’s border with Serbia , it will be built by 31 August; any other dates are invalid, Viktor Orbán announced. “Based on experiences to date, the number of illegal border-crossers decreases to one-sixth to one-seventh immediately after the construction of such border fences. I am expecting a large-scale improvement as a result of this measure”, he said.

Viktor Orbán also informed his audience of the results of the national consultation on immigration and terrorism . He pointed out that 1,000,254 questionnaires were completed and sent back, and according to the results, 95 per cent take the view that Hungarian families and the children to be born should be supported, instead of immigration. More than two thirds of Hungarian people find the issue of the spread of terrorism relevant to their own lives. Three quarters of them believe that illegal migrants are a threat to the jobs and livelihood of the Hungarian people. Four fifths take the view that the policy of Brussels regarding immigration and terrorism has failed, he said.

Niccolo and Donkey Monday 10 Aug 2015

They are shitting their collective underwear.....

The Hungary PM made a ‘rivers of blood’ speech … and no one cares

I have been studying radical right politics for almost 25 years. When I started, the Berlin Wall had just come down and only a handful of radical right parties were represented in national parliaments. That one of them would one day be part of a national government in Europe was considered impossible. Today, radical right parties, or parties many would have considered as such in the early 1990s, are part of governments in Finland, Greece, Latvia, Norway, and Switzerland – while the Danish minority government depends on support from the right .

Despite the electoral and political successes of radical right parties, they are not as important as mainstream media and politicians make out. I have spent my career arguing this and still believe it – on average, radical right parties gain less than 10% of the vote in national elections in EU member states, while the parties that do get into government rarely get any of their priorities fully implemented.

We devote far too much attention to relatively irrelevant groups and often ignore more significant phenomena

My main point is not that the rise of the radical right is unimportant, but that these groups are often not that relevant. We devote far too much attention to relatively irrelevant groups and often ignore more significant phenomena. Think about the hype around the English Defence League or Pegida in Germany, neither of which has had any serious effect. Or how about the enduring fascination with neo-Nazis and skinheads? Both are, at most, a criminal justice issue in a few European countries.

Misguided emphasis on the most extreme and photogenic radical right groups also plays out in Hungary. As the international media continues to give little or no attention to the increasingly radical right rhetoric of prime minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party , they continue to publish alarmist articles and op-eds about the rise of the radical right Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) – despite the fact that Fidesz probably has a more radical discourse (though not ideology) than Jobbik.

I am not claiming that Orbán is a radical right politician. Given his many ideological swings, who knows? What I am saying is that it doesn’t matter anymore. Whether he is inspired by a genuine ideology, or has adopted an opportunistic strategy in order to fend off the Jobbik challenge, Orbán has transformed Fidesz into a party that seems increasingly driven by a combination of nativism, authoritarianism and populism – hallmarks of radical right ideology.

At its core is ethnic nationalism, with the nation defined in ethnic terms, ie the roughly 15 million “ethnic Hungarians” living in Hungary and surrounding countries (notably Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine), rather than in civic terms, ie the barely 10 million citizens of Hungary .

Orbán has transformed Fidesz into a party that seems increasingly driven hallmarks of radical right ideology

Accepting the restrictions of EU membership, Fidesz wants to change the meaning of Hungary’s borders, rather than the borders themselves. It has tried to do this by giving all “ethnic Hungarians” citizenship of Hungary, though preferring them to remain in the ancient lands of pre-Trianon Hungary.

Nationalism is combined with authoritarianism, with the government increasingly cracking down on media and NGOs considered “disloyal” to the nation (ie to Orbán and Fidesz), and with strong populism, which presents Orbán as the authentic voice of the Hungarian people who are fighting off a (EU-sponsored) leftwing conspiracy.

Since the horrific terrorist attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, perhaps earlier, Orbán has added a strong dose of xenophobia to this toxic mix. As leaders from around the world descended on Paris to speak in defence of free speech, however hypocritical they were, the Hungarian PM used the #JeSuisCharlie demonstration to launch an anti-immigration campaign that is becoming more problematic by the day. In a speech given at the 26th Bálványos summer open university and student camp last weekend, Orbán said:

“What we have at stake today is Europe, the European way of life, the survival or disappearance of European values and nations, or their transformation beyond recognition … We would like Europe to be preserved for the Europeans. But there is something we would not just like but we want because it only depends on us: we want to preserve a Hungarian Hungary.”

While Orbán lacks the eloquence, and classical training, of Enoch Powell, make no mistake: this speech was more significant that Powell’s infamous Rivers of Blood speech of 1968 . While Powell was a member of the Tory shadow cabinet, a position he lost because of the speech, Orbán is the almighty ruler of Hungary – more or less jokingly referred to as Orbánistan by his opponents. He doesn’t just warn about “the survival or disappearance of European values and nations”, he organises xenophobic referendum campaigns and builds walls on his borders – roughly 25 years after the Iron Curtain was lifted in, of all places, Hungary.

Even more upsetting than Orbán’s increasingly radical right politics is the deafening silence from the rest of Europe. The EU has criticised only some specific aspects of Hungary’s illiberal democratic regime – most notably political control of banks and the media – as the powerful centre-right European People’s party stands staunchly by Orbán, its former vice-president. The US has spoken out at times, but seems more worried about antisemitism and Jobbik than anti-immigrant policies and Fidesz.

Even the usual suspects such as anti-racist organisations and the leftwing media, normally so quick to condemn racism and warn about the rise of fascism, have been sidetracked by lesser threats such as Jobbik and Pegida. But while they are fighting the radical right at the European margins, it is growing deep within the heart of the EU. It’s time to shift priorities.

Niccolo and Donkey Saturday 19 Sep 2015

Asterion Nikolai

How does Europe solve a problem like Viktor Orban?

to fight his corner, three European presidents made a point of keeping him at a distance.

Orbán, a strongman leader for the past five years who embraces controversy and confrontation as his preferred mode of politics, is Europe’s foremost exponent of tough exclusion policies in the midst of the continent’s biggest refugee crisis.

He denies there is a crisis, despite figures showing that more than half of the arrivals in Europe this year are Syrians fleeing war and persecution. He states bluntly that Muslims are not wanted in Hungary, that he is defending the EU’s external frontier as a Christian against a Muslim invasion. A gifted orator, he uses hyperbole and alarmism to great effect, pandering to popular prejudices. Tens of millions of migrants are coming, he contends, to a continent in which the natives will end up as the minority.

Donald Tusk, president of the European council, said Orbán was being unchristian in stoking a clash of civilisations between the west and Islam. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, and Martin Schulz, head of the European parliament, voiced their disagreements with a leader revelling in the spotlight and relishing his role as Europe’s leading bad boy.

But apart from occasionally shaking their heads and holding their noses in Orbán’s company, there is little they are inclined do either to isolate him or force him to change his ways. “He hasn’t broken any laws,” said a senior EU official.

In a speech in Brussels on Monday evening, Tusk’s recommendations on how to tackle the refugee crisis were more moderately phrased, but entirely in line with the Hungarian’s emphasis on tough security measures, closing the borders and keeping people out.

Frans Timmermans, the commission’s No 2 and its ‘enforcer’, recently delivered a speech on the rule of law in Europe and repeatedly referred to the problem of Hungary under Orbán. He made it plain he was reluctant to sanction the government in Budapest by, for example, invoking EU treaty provisions depriving a member state of its voting rights.

This was done once before by Brussels, against Austria in the 1990s when the late far-right leader, Jörg Haider, entered government. “The case of Austria weakened the EU’s capacity to react,” said Timmermans. “It was a political response which completely backfired. Since then member states have been reluctant to take issue with other member states.”

If EU governments hesitate to denounce their peers, the political party system in the EU helps them. Orbán is widely seen as an authoritarian nationalist shifting towards the far right, but his party, Fidesz, is part of the family of Christian Democrats, which make up the European People’s party (EPP) in the European parliament, dominated by Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Berlin and Budapest are fiercely critical of each other over immigration – Orbán described the influx as “not a European problem, but a German problem”. But Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party has done little to put pressure on Orbán. The EPP’s other big problem figure in recent years was Silvio Berlusconi when he was prime minister of Italy. Eventually Merkel helped to topple him.

But for the political leaders of Europe, nothing is prized more highly than power and electoral success. And here Orbán is peerless. Not even Merkel, coasting towards a fourth term if she wants it, can hold a candle to him. She has to rule through coalitions and sharing power. Orbán, in office since 2010 and not facing re-election until 2018, has a whopping majority, just short of two-thirds. He has the strongest electoral mandate in the EU. He has no competition beyond the neo-fascist Jobbik movement, which is now the biggest opposition party.

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Hungary has built a fence at its border with Serbia. Photograph: Zoltan Gergely Kelemen/EPA
The Americans are less fussy. Last year, they blacklisted several senior Hungarian government officials, barring them from the US for alleged corruption and “kleptocracy” in a unique move against a Nato ally and an EU state.

Such a move is inconceivable in the EU, not least since many national leaders would balk at setting the precedent for fear that the penalties could then be used against others.

Orbán does not have a good word to say about modern Europe, whose response to the refugee issue is “madness”, he said last week. He has put up a razor-wire fence on the border with Serbia, and warned he might repeat the exercise on the frontier with Croatia, which, unlike Serbia, is an EU member state. He is putting the army on the borders and fast-tracking new laws criminalising immigrants, which on Monday triggered the resignation of his defence minister.

Orbán has used his power to write a new constitution, cow the media, stuff the constitutional court with supporters, purge the foreign ministry and the diplomatic corps, restructure parliament and gerrymander electoral districts. He mocks European notions of liberal democracy, and voices admiration for Vladimir Putin in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey.

But he has plenty of quiet admirers in central Europe and the Balkans, where leaders increasingly see Orbán as a man to emulate, rather than isolate. Given the rise of radicalism and populism of left and right and the shrinking of the centre in European politics, there are many who see in Orbán Europe’s future, and not a hangover from history.

Hungary's 'Orbanization' Is Worrying Europe

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