Viktor Orbán is taking his vision of illiberal democracy on the road. After spending nearly 15 years in power putting the screws on press freedom and the judiciary, the Hungarian prime minister is going international, bankrolling ultraconservative outlets in neighboring countries and, now, the de facto capital of the European Union.
As home to the institutions that have sought to curb his worst excesses by withholding EU cash, Brussels is a major thorn in Orbán’s side. He’s keen to conquer it from within, and to that end he’s been investing in the ideological takeover of the so-called Brussels bubble. Ahead of Hungary’s stint in the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, his allies launched The European Conservative and the Brussels Signal, two conservative publications that amplify the anti-woke culture war messaging spread by Budapest’s Mathias Corvinus Collegium think tank.
Orbán’s operations in the Belgian capital are part of his greater ambition of creating an international alliance of similarly illiberal political actors. The quest appears to be progressing in Europe. Together with France’s Marine Le Pen, this summer he made a play to unite far-right parties within the new Patriots for Europe group, which has ultimately become the third-largest political group in the European Parliament.
In the United States, the reelection of Donald Trump as president increases the possibilities for Orbán to make his network go global. In addition to building deep ties with American conservatives — who have held two Conservative Political Action Conference summits in Budapest — Orbán, 61, has carefully cultivated his friendship with Trump and made reverential trips to the MAGA movement’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. That puts the Hungarian nationalist in prime position to serve as a bridge between Washington and, if not necessarily Europe, the continent’s ascendant conservative forces.
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