AUTOCRATS’ CLUB
Published Jun. 02, 2024
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/
BUDAPEST—Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has come to be known as President Vladimir Putin’s “Trojan horse” inside the European Union. He is the continent’s biggest hater of the U.S. Democratic Party, referring to liberals as his “enemies,” and he was the only European leader who congratulated Putin on his record fifth inauguration this month. The signs are growing that Orbán is following Putin’s path deeper and deeper into an autocracy that could shake up Europe.
In Budapest, there is an unmistakable authoritarian atmosphere. As someone who lived in Russia through most of Putin’s reign, the memories evoked include that of Nashi, the Kremlin’s far-right youth propaganda movement. Billboards across the city show the faces of Orbán’s opponents covered by huge dollar signs and accompanied by slogans that read: “They sold themselves by the thousands.” We saw many similar signs in Moscow starting around 2011 when Putin began a crackdown on the opposition that would entrench him in power and ultimately lead to the disastrous invasion of Ukraine.
It’s not just Putin inspiring Orbán. He welcomed President Xi Jinping to Budapest this month and declared China to be one of the “pillars of the new world order.” If China is dreaming of a 21st century dominated by autocrats not democrats, then Orbán wants to get on board. Xi’s appearance in Hungary underlined the growing “strategic partnership” between the nations who announced a host of new economic, diplomatic, and business agreements. Putin was in Beijing this month to make a host of similar pronouncements himself.
Moscow is watching the destabilizing divisions within Europe—some of which are stoked by Orbán in his role as a naysayer with a veto within the European Union—with great interest. The newly appointed Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov highlighted recently that Russia does have allies in the West: “There are elites and important social layers in the West, who are promoting traditional values; and Russia, perhaps, is their life raft, which will help them protect at least something.”
Orbán, head of the right-wing Fidesz party, is clinging to that “life raft” and Russia makes him work for its support; whether it’s blocking European aid for Ukraine, vetoing an EU plan to use frozen Russian assets, or speaking out against the European consensus on helping Ukraine win the war.
Even the other conservative parties see Orbán as selling out his country. The president of the Jobbik party, Marton Gyongyosi, told The Daily Beast: “Orbán is selling his role as ‘the Trojan horse’ in the EU to both Putin and Xi.”
Orbán is benefitting from a growing number of deals with Russia and China. Gazprom recently stepped in to sponsor the country’s biggest soccer team, Russian loans have backed big state projects and—in return—it has been reported that Hungary is now a “safe haven” in Europe for FSB spies.
Gyongyosi says Hungarians are already paying the price for Orbán’s great game: “Nobody trusts us any longer,” he explained. “NATO is not sharing information with Orbán. Austria and Slovakia control their border with us. Hungary’s universities lose grants, funds for scientific research, and a chance to take part in exchange programs available for other member states of the European Union.”
As Orbán grows ever more isolated from Europe and the U.S. so he clings tighter to his authoritarian friends.
His cult of personality and iron grip on Hungary is coming to resemble that of an authoritarian leader. The most recent survey conducted by the Hungarian government claimed that more than 98 percent of Hungarians support Orbán’s vetoes against EU aid for Ukraine and “believe that ceasefire and peace is needed for Ukraine, instead of weapons and bank transfers.”
He has also created a bill “protecting national sovereignty”—which looks as if it was dreamt up by Russia’s own banning-machine—that helps security services to go after anyone criticizing the government.
Orbán has now been in power for 14 years and easily won a landslide re-election in April 2022, just weeks after Putin sent troops to Ukraine.
Peter Kreko, one of the leading experts on Hungarian state disinformation, said Orbán’s domestic propaganda landscape was becoming eerily similar to Putin’s.
“Orbán likes to enjoy all the benefits of EU membership, while politically capitalizing on the anti-EU rhetoric: George Soros and Brussels have become some kind of axiomatic enemies in governmental communication, the ultimate cause of all evil. Putin’s and Orbán’s anti-EU rhetoric is very similar,” he told The Daily Beast. “They both say that the EU is increasingly a puppet of the United States—the ‘colonialization’ narrative grows widespread; they both say that this is a hotbed of the LGBTQ ‘rainbow propaganda,’ and that the EU went too far from its original moral values; they espouse a trinity of values; nation, God, and family.”
If you walk around Budapest’s Liberty Square—the home of the U.S. Embassy—there is a strange collection of monuments: to Ronald Reagan, to the Soviet liberation of Hungary in the World War II, and to Harry Hill Bandholts, a U.S. Army general who became famous in Hungary in 1919 when he refused to allow the Romanian military to steal Transylvanian treasures from the national museum. You will not find any monuments to the victims of homophobia. There is no memorial to the victims of autocrats, even though thousands of civilians were murdered under the rule of the fascist Arrow Cross Party in 1944-1945, and thousands more were later killed during 45 years of the Soviet occupation.
Propaganda billboards talk about Hungary’s successful development under Orbán’s government; restaurants, cafes and galleries around the square are full of respectable-looking businesses. There is no reminder about the war raging in a neighboring country—Hungary and Ukraine share a short, 84-mile border.
History goes in circles in Hungary. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, Orbán’s party Fidesz espoused strong anti-Russian views. “Orbán practically reversed the thinking of his own voters, turned them increasingly pro-Russian,” Kreko told The Daily Beast. “If you ask Fidesz voters these days who they blame for the war, they first blame the U.S., second Ukraine, and Russia would be only third.”
And yet it was within living memory that 1,000 Soviet tanks rolled along the streets of Budapest killing hundreds of civilians during a 12-day-long uprising against Stalinist rule. Soviet troops didn’t leave Hungary until 1991.
One of the deadly tanks used in 1956 is now exhibited at the House of Terror Museum in the center of Budapest. “Nobody explains to Hungarians at the House of Terror that Putin is bringing Stalinism back—one day you are proud of the revolution of 1956 and then 70 years later you are with Russia, managed by the KGB,” said Istvan Hegedus, once a leading member of the Fidesz party, who knew Orbán well.
Hegedus, who is now chairman of the Hungarian Europe Society think tank, left the party when he saw Orbán turning towards the right. “Orbán’s behavior is irrational. He spreads anti-Soros propaganda, showing off his brutal methods—his doctrine is based on frustrating, he hates his own allies in the EU and blackmails them,” he told The Daily Beast.
He explained that the war in Ukraine is helping Orbán persuade Hungarians to follow his plunge towards autocracy as he emulates Putin. “The war is the problem. Promises of peace on the conditions dictated by Putin sound promising to many in Hungary. People say, ‘We don’t want to die.’ Hungarians have forgotten what happened under Stalinism.”
As the old saying goes: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
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Guess who is Orban’s biggest fan? That’s right: DJT.
I’m actually in favour of keeping Turkey in Nato and joining the EU. Despite its appalling Orban-type dictator, it has helped Ukraine at least partially. Furthermore, it’s a vast country with a powerful military and it would be catastrophic if it joined the CRINKS axis of evil.
But a piss-ass country like Orbanistan? The people there have chosen fascist dictatorship as their ruling model. Orban is just another Lukashenko.
Orbanistan must be expelled from the EU and Nato. It’s just a putler Trojan horse.
I’d also look strongly at kicking out Slovakia and Montenegro from both institutions.
As for Ireland, it’s not in Nato, but why should it remain in the EU? It recognizes putler-owned “Palestine”, which means it is clearly distainful of Ukraine. It’s only a matter of time before putler-owned Sinn Fein/IRA takes power.
The following article is written by a concerned Irishman:
Ireland’s the ultimate defense freeloader:
https://www.politico.eu/article/ireland-defense-freeloader-ukraine-work-royal-air-force/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2oICS8N7jKa5VLIyC5Q0C9CrBXAPjp7uaoftV_DBNW8BEa29eXYvrDyEI_aem_ASr3dbRJ3mJoOsnwi0i2edNw3TrMC2O1zqqyGPrwvdJq2Jp0XRfQrXip7s_Td-VWZUAZBlkmnkXpikA6Aizd4fAl
As a German guy, I’m very much against Turkey joining the EU. Too many Turks already live here in their own parallel society, refusing integration. Even one of my neighbors, otherwise a nice woman, is an Erdogan voter and still calls Turkey “her country”. After 3 decades and raising three kids here! That’s the opposite of a “melting pot of nations” and not good for democracy. ☹
That’s just like the cockroaches that have lived in Europe for decades, yet still support their little gutter rat and his criminal war.
Immigration is a farce, Mr. Gray. There might be positive examples, but letting massive amounts of foreigners into a country never ends well.
In fact, I have heard Erdogan won elections as there are millions of Turks voting for Erdogan abroad. If you ask me, everyone that votes for this guy should be kicked out of our country.
I must say over the last years my opinions on immigration have changed quite a bit. I think there are too many people that do not share Western values.
However, I do think the main problem are the Turks and people from Northern Africa that came to Europe in the 1960’s – 1980’s and their children.
Often they are from rural and poor places and barely have an education.
They were only used as cheap labour, often in horrible conditions and did not really mix with locals.
Migrants that came in recent years are often the higher middle class and elite that could afford to move to Europe. They often share more Western values. Especially Iranians in Europe are often very liberal. They are almost all political refugees and consciously made the decision to go to the West.
In the Netherlands, they are even the highest educated group of all ethnicities, including people with Dutch ethnicity.
I have the feeling people that people from Muslim countries that moved here often get shit over them for the things the Turks, Algerians and Moroccans from the 1960’s and their descendants say or do.
This said, I think we should be more careful on who we are letting in. When they like Erdogan, don’t want to shake a gay man or woman’s hand or think Hamas terrorists are liberators, hate America but love Russia, please put them on a boat to wherever they came from.
I would say replace them with Iranians as they have proven to be good drinking buddies.
treB
Mexico; another putinoid shithole, has a new president : Claudia Sheinbaum.
I’ve no idea what she says about Ukraine, but her mentor is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; a raging putlerite fucking tankie.
It’s being said that she has the charisma of a brick and is only Obrador’s puppet. Thus, a serious change of Mexican foreign policy is unlikely, sadly. As in many Latin American states, Ukraine becomes victim of widespread antiamericanism, despite Zelenskyy doing his best in reaching out to those countries and trying to show that Ukraine isn’t a banana republic of the US at all. Only good that those developning countries wouldn’t have much to 8ffer anyway. 😕
A point not given enough consideration in this analysis is that Orban is a crook. Trump is a crook, too, and Erdogan, Berlusconi and Fico. And powerful crooks will try to get political power in order to further increase their illicit incomes. It’s easier for them as for other politicians to get into power, because money buys influence and media presence. Thus, a major move towards making democracies more resistant against this type of unfriendly takeover has to be a reform of white collar crime law. Enough already with mere fines against corporations, hold more managers and owners personally responsible! Also, higher alternative minimum taxes on billionaires, to reduce the amounts they can spare on political ambitions. You have to fight the excessive money to prevent it from becoming political leverage. History of the last decades proves that this would have prevented several wannabe dictators from overthrowing democracy. 😠
What a screwed up world we live in. We have crooks on one side and spineless cowards on the other.
It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again, both the EU and NATO have tolerated this asshole and his insignificant country for much too long already. The country is not worth keeping. It only weakens both entities.