Global press condemns Hungarian PM Orbán's illiberal democracy plans

PM Orbán’s speech delivered about a week ago near Baile Tusnad, part of neighboring Romania with large numbers of ethnic Hungarians, in which he has practically announced that Hungary is was done with liberal democracy, flicked a switch in quite a few people’s mind. Renowned opinion shapers and global press have just started to address the speech and its controversial content.

Orbán also cited Russia, Turkey and China as “successful" examples of the kind of “illiberal new state based on national foundations" that he wants Hungary to be.

“Hard to believe that a European leader would openly call for illiberal democracy as Viktor Orban has done," internationally renowned political economist Francis Fukuyama has commented on his Twitter page on 1 August.

It took the international press some time too to react to Orbán’s speech, especially what Orbán said about building illiberal democracy in Hungary. On Thursday and Friday, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post and The New York Times published opinion pieces on the speech. What was common in nearly all of these is that Orbán’s remarks made them think of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

“Long an admirer of Vladimir Putin, Mr. Orban has been thumbing his nose at the European Union since his Fidesz Party won election in 2010. Since then, Mr. Orban’s government has taken steps to undermine the rule of law, gut press freedom, attack civil society groups and increase executive power," wrote the editorial board of The New York Times.

“Hungary's slow-motion transformation into a soft-authoritarian state may appear to Washington and Brussels as a provincial concern on Europe's periphery. Yet Mr. Orban looks with admiration to Vladimir Putin —and harbors Putin-like aspirations," wrote The Wall Street Journal in an opinion piece headlined ‘The ‘Illiberal’ Idea Rises’.

“Hungary has in recent years granted citizenship to ethnic Hungarians in neighboring states, and the goal of resurrecting a Greater Hungary stretching beyond the country's post-World War I borders is no fantasy for many nationalist elites," it added.

Hungary lost two thirds of its territory when the Austro-Hungarian empire disintegrated into an array of nation-states after World War I.

Noting that Orbán’s cabinet “has taken steps to undermine the rule of law, gut press freedom, attack civil society groups and increase executive power," the NYT recalled the new law imposing up to 40% tax on advertising revenue, saying it is “aimed squarely at crippling the Hungarian unit of the RTL Group, one of the few channels in Hungary that does not parrot the government line." It also mentioned the pressure the Government Control Office is putting on civil society groups, the criminalisation of homelessness and the fact that they have stripped some 300 religious groups of their official status.

The NYT reminded that the European Union has condemned these actions, and the Venice Commission, an advisory body on rights to the Council of Europe, published a scathing report on Hungary’s constitutional amendments last year.

Last week, Neelie Kroes, the vice president of the European Commission who is responsible for the digital agenda, harshly criticized the advertising tax, calling it a threat to a free press that is the foundation of a democratic society.“Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Justice, has said that the European Union should consider suspending Hungary’s voting rights in the European Council, a measure the union has been reluctant to take," the paper added.

“Mr. Orban clearly believes he runs no risk. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, needs to respond with more than the usual admonitions and hand-wringing. The commission could start by reducing the 21.91 billion euros (about USD 29.33 billion) the European Union has allocated to Hungary to finance infrastructure development from 2014-20. It should also begin proceedings to invoke Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, which allows the suspension of voting rights of a member state that is at serious risk of breaching the values listed in Article 2, including the rule of law, freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. The commission would diminish its credibility if it fails to take steps to sanction Hungary for systematically breaching these values," the NYT concluded.

“More broadly, Mr. Orban's illiberal candor is a warning that free markets and free societies need more forceful defending. The West's victory in the Cold War led to a complacency that the liberal idea was triumphant—that it was "the end of history," in the fashionable phrase of the day. But authoritarians are always lurking to seize on democratic weakness," The WSJ said.

“Western Europe needs to set a better example of what freedom can achieve by reviving economic growth, and the American President who ostensibly still leads the free world ought to break his pattern and speak up on behalf of the liberal idea as if he believes it. If President Obama won't do it, then those who want to be his successor should," it added.

Headline of the week went to Newsweek, which ran an analysis entitled ‘Hungary’s Mussolini’ Vows to Make the EU Member an ‘Illiberal State’. According to The Financial Times, Orbán had “just cemented his reputation as the problem child of the European Union. Mr Orban’s speech will exacerbate fears in Brussels that democracy in Hungary is at risk. Nonetheless, some of the countries that Mr Orbán cited - such as Russia, China and Turkey - are hardly encouraging models for those who cherish democratic rights. Hungary’s peculiar path under Viktor Orbán also has implications beyond its borders. The Hungarian prime minister looks like a problem who is not going to go away," the FT added.

• Tags:
• economy,
• politics,
• tusványos,
• orbán