Hungary

In Viktor Orbán’s self-styled illiberal democracy, power is maintained through patronage and cronyism built around public jobs and EU money.

Since October 2018, it has been illegal to live in the street in Hungary. Social anthropologist and housing rights activist Tessza Udvarhelyi explains why homeless people are such an easy target for populist politicians, and how the newest measures humiliate those who cannot afford a place to live.

An interview with social movements researcher Agnes Gagyi on the solidarity economy in Romania and Hungary.

An interview examining the driving forces and effects of changing attitudes to migration in Hungary.

What does the future of the EU look like from Southern and Eastern Europe?

With authoritarian populism on the rise, liberal democracy in Europe is facing an existential crisis. In this interview, Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy, hashes out the conundrum facing democracies old and new.

Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz were delivered to victory by an unfair system, media manipulation, and attacking their enemies. Opposition failure made it too easy for them.

With Hungarians taking to the polls on April 8, can progressives loosen the illiberal grip of Viktor Orbán’s government?

Andrea Pető, a historian and professor at Hungary’s Central European University, discusses the struggles of women’s rights activists and organisations in the context of illiberal governments, arguing that identifying the mechanisms which undermine or threaten to roll back social progress helps us to better understand these forces.

Why is Hungary’s Central European University under threat? One of its professors explains what’s going on.