Hungary

The Hungarian Government has identified its new target:  Index.hu, the country’s biggest independent news website, is now under the indirect control of government-friendly investors. Their journalists, in the meantime, have promised that they won’t give up without a fight.

After first targeting refugees, the Hungarian Government has now turned its focus back to one of its old “enemies”. Just a few months before the upcoming municipal elections in spring 2019, homeless people have recently become a more intensely-targeted group than ever before.

On 12 September the European Parliament voted in favour of starting procedures against the Hungarian government for breaching European values. We asked Hungarian MEP Benedek Jávor how he evaluates the outcomes of the vote.

On the 12th of September the European Parliament voted on the so called Sargentini Report, condemning the anti-democratic turn of Hungary and initiating the procedure related to Article  7 (1) of the Treaty on the European Union. Huge attention has been drawn to the continuous democratic erosion in Hungary.

Viktor Orbán`s and his government`s decisions on family tax allowance and child benefits favour middle-class traditional families and portray their conservative view on family and gender. 

The Hungarian Government has voted to further deteriorate refugee people's rights and justify the imprisonment of NGO workers and attorneys who attempt to help them. ​

A crucially necessary reform of the healthcare system has been awaiting Hungary since the transition from the communist era. The Orbán Government would have had a historical chance - but healthcare just keeps drifting along.

The name Visegrad in Western European terminology has become synonymous with a lack of solidarity and nationalist politics. In Hungary, however, it also has implications for the future of democracy in Western Europe. How can the EU recover its appeal?

Media pluralism has suffered another major blow in Hungary. Magyar Nemzet, a newspaper that represented a brand of conservatism that was still able to critically evaluate the governing of Viktor Orbán, was shut down following the Prime Minister’s most recent election victory.

Hungary has become a laboratory of illiberal governance tailor-made to serve Fidesz’s goals. Its rhetoric is based on identity politics, conspiracy theories and enemy images. It has a massive Government-financed fake news industry. After this election, a shift to a more moderate stance is not expected.