Hunger Games

FOTP Monday

Continuing our alphabetic tour of the great nations of Europe, we head this week to Hungary, where I — were I channeling my grandfather’s wise words about things gone awry — would tell you is from Hunger these days. The country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his ruling party, Fidesz, have been in power for the past 15 years, and along the way they have provided — though this wasn’t their main goal — the GOP, Donald Trump, and his administration a master class on how to spin the news, belittle, dehumanize, and punish opponents, stoke the worst DNA in its citizens, usurp the legal system, and, worst of all, hold on to and manipulate power.

Their main goal was something much more nefarious.

Since Orbán’s win in 2010 — he also won in 2014, ’18, and ’22 (and this after being prime minister from 1998 to 2002) — he and Fidesz have embraced the notion of “illiberal democracy,” a term that describes authoritarian regimes that hide their practices and intentions behind the trappings of an actual democracy. There are still courts in the country, a parliament (in Hungary’s case, a single-chamber National Assembly), and all the trappings of a functioning, healthy, free society, but it’s controlled and orchestrated by Fidesz and Orbán.

They rig elections without actually stealing them, imprison opponents without actually throwing them off hotel balconies or bringing down their airplanes like Orbán’s good friend does, and gin up the nonsensical and parenthetical without conscience.