In his annual state of the nation address at the end of February, “looking back from the cooling shade of the American electoral victory”, Hungary’s Prime Minister reinforced his ideological alignment with Donald Trump by announcing draconian measures against those whom he rhetorically frames as enemies of his patriotic, illiberal agenda – NGOs, the LGBTQ+ community, the opposition, and independent media – and doctrinally entrenched himself alongside Trump on Ukraine and against migrants. Viktor Orbán considers Trump “the only man who can save the Western world, and probably the human beings on the globe as well”.
Trump’s Inauguration - a Domestic Boon for Orbán, a Kindred Spirit
Trump, in his unwavering endorsement of autocratic leaders, has cited his close ties to Orbán, whom he calls a “tough guy,” on several occasions, including the presidential debate with Kamala Harris. Domestically, the inauguration of Trump has bolstered Orbán’s conspiracy-driven narrative of defending Hungary from a liberal, globalist “empire”. In his annual address, Orbán explained his views as follows: “The Empire has two heads and a central depot. One head is in Washington, one in Brussels, and the Soros depot is here in Budapest” – referring to the Hungarian Jewish financier and philanthropist George Soros and his related organizations promoting democracy and liberal values, who has been vilified by Orbán with antisemitic tropes.
Framing critical voices as enemies of the state
Orbán then gloated about having given the country “a new, Christian, national constitution”, “protecting Hungary from migration”, allegedly protecting Hungarian “children from gender activists”, standing up “for peace”, and protecting “Hungary from Soros”, whose “Budapest depot” he would dismiss by Easter. Similarly, Trump had boasted (setting self-imposed deadlines) that if elected president, he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.
Orbán claimed that recent American revelations have exposed a vast, corrupt power machine, disguised as civil society promoting tolerance and equal opportunities, that systematically enforces liberal political repression to undermine national freedom and maintain a dominant global empire.[1]
Clamping down on independent media and NGOs – further eroding checks and balances
The “Easter purge” has begun. Though Orbán and his entourage are surrounded by corruption scandals,[2] with a friendly Trump administration now less likely to criticize them, Orbán feels emboldened to further consolidate his power. This has intensified the crackdown on independent media, NGOs, and opposition voices — policies that Orbán proudly brands as necessary to protect national sovereignty and “traditional values”. In 2017, the Government passed a law that forced NGOs to register and label themselves as “foreign-funded,” as we also reported — a measure designed to delegitimize any dissenting voices. The process has now been fuelled by the 90-day freeze of foreign assistance programmes following Trump’s inauguration (a “cleansing wind”, in Orbán’s wording) as a result of which Hungarian civil society organisations and media outlets not aligned with the Government have suffered significant losses, HVG reports.
The narrative against Western interference – a smokescreen for undermining media pluralism
Since assuming office in 2010, Orbán has cemented his grip on the Hungarian news media by transforming public broadcasters into Government mouthpieces dominating the public sphere and deliberately cutting off independent outlets from state advertising funds. Opposition newspapers are thus forced to seek foreign funding and private donations. As investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi has recently published on VSquare, a regional collaborative platform of independent journalists focusing on Central Europe, Orbán’s intelligence agency has already been ordered to compile a blacklist of NGOs and media outlets. As a result, Tamás Lánczi, the head of the Hungarian Sovereignty Protection Office, an organization serving as a propaganda instrument (without executive power), created last year, and labelled by the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner as safeguarding arbitrary Government power, has published a smear video against independent media outlets Telex, 444, and the investigative portal Átlátszó, discrediting them as leftist propaganda products which create the illusion of independence while receiving humongous USAID funds and serving American interests.
It is worth noting that Átlátszó had extensively investigated how the Orbán Government had reshaped the Hungarian media landscape into a media empire disseminating the Government’s message nationwide.[3] Átlátszó and the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International were the targets of a slander campaign initiated by the Sovereignty Protection Office in 2024. Panyi revealed that according to one of his sources, the directive for the intelligence service’s list of foreign-funded organizations does not apply to the Hungarian-registered Chinese NGOs connected with China’s United Front and intelligence service, nor to the organizations paid by Russian proxies, but only to civil rights advocacy and media groups which have received support from the United States or Europe. Upon requests for clarification, Lánczi refused to reveal the basis for the Hungarian Sovereignty Protection Office’s accusations. Escalating stigmatization and permanently freezing the foreign funds of such organisations under the cover of sovereignty protection could be a decisive step in the erosion of checks and balances.
Constitutional amendments in favour of anti-LGBTQ+ ideology – banning Budapest Pride
While Orbán’s Government had already eroded the rule of law by altering the electoral system and exerting influence over the judiciary and media, Trump’s return and the strengthening of American populist rhetoric have justified even harsher measures of fighting “Western interference” in Hungary, including constitutional amendments targeting dual citizenship holders and the LGBTQ+ community.
In the name of child protection, on 18 March Hungary’s Parliament passed a law banning Pride events and granting authorities the use of facial recognition software to identify the attendees of assemblies and impose fines on them. This is part of an ongoing, systematic assault on the rights and visibility of the LGBTQ+ community, encompassing the 2021 law banning the “portrayal” and “promotion” of LGBTQ+ content to children, creating “a cloud of fear”, as Amnesty International reports, and pressuring bookstores to seal books with LGBTQ+ content. The Pride ban fits well with Trump’s agenda against “gender ideology” and has led to protests blocking bridges in Budapest and to international uproar.
In an interview, Hungarian linguist, poet, and literary translator Ádám Nádasdy said he hoped this was merely propaganda-driven bluster that would eventually burst like a balloon. Nádasdy dismissed claims of “gay propaganda” as nonsense, joking that if such propaganda existed, then he would love to persuade handsome young men to “turn gay” — but that would be as impossible as persuading someone to “turn” colour-blind: “If I tell this story in Vienna, Amsterdam, or London, people will sympathize just as they did [when Hungary was] behind the Iron Curtain, saying that in your country, you’re not allowed to do this or that." He believes children should learn about homosexuality, just as they do about contraception, Greek tragedies, or Jesus’ crucifixion, in an age-appropriate way. He argues that the law is pointless, since information cannot be restricted today.
Fertile conflicts aimed at dividing political opponents
According to a blog post by the former editor-in-chief of Telex, Szabolcs Dull, Orbán’s goal with targeting the LGBTQ+ community is to seek out “fertile conflicts” which resonate widely, energize his supporters, and divide his opponents, forcing his main adversary, Péter Magyar, to take a stand on such issues — which the latter has refused to do, stating on Facebook that the “old opposition methods only serve to keep Orbán in power”. Dull explains that if Magyar were to lead protests against the Pride ban and the crackdown on “foreign interference”, FIDESZ could then battle his party TISZA[4] on those issues instead of debating the harsh living conditions millions of Hungarians face.
Dull points out that Orbán rarely deals directly with his adversaries in his speeches, which made his recent comparison of Péter Magyar and the opposition to stink bugs which have overwintered remarkable. The dehumanizing, crude language prompted critical reactions countrywide, even from members of the clergy who rarely criticize the Government openly. Lutheran Bishop Tamás Fabiny reminded the public that such language evokes “painful historical memories” and does not align with the Christian values Orbán has routinely wielded as his justification; he also spoke out against the Government’s stigmatization of LGBTQ+ people. Dull believes Orbán’s discourse serves to turn the focus of public discussion away from rising prices, inflation, and Péter Magyar’s new Government-critical national survey and rising popularity, instead having the public interpret domestic politics through the lens of foreign interference.
Only Trump can bring “peace” in the “territory called ‘Ukraine’” — will Hungary play the role of scavenger?
Orbán has claimed that if Trump had been president in 2022, the full-fledged war in Ukraine would never have started, and that only Trump could deliver “peace” — which seems to mean Ukraine’s surrender to Russia, as Orbán posted on X after the U.S. president openly rebuked Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office: “Today President @realDonaldTrump stood bravely for peace. Even if it was difficult for many to digest. Thank you, Mr. President!”
Orbán previously tried to play the role of a self-appointed European peacemaker between Ukraine and Russia and travelled to Kyiv and Moscow last summer, much to his European colleagues’ discontent, advocating for direct negotiations with Putin. Alongside his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico, and in contrast to most European leaders, Orbán has aligned himself with Trump and consistently sought to obstruct collective European initiatives aimed at supporting Ukraine. In his state of the nation speech, Orbán referred to Ukraine as the “territory called ‘Ukraine’” when he said: “The war is not actually about Ukraine itself, but rather about placing the territory called ‘Ukraine’, which had previously served as a buffer zone between NATO and Russia, under NATO control” — rhetorically aligning himself with Putin’s excuse for attacking Ukraine.
In a podcast, National Security Expert Péter Buda commented as follows: “Orbán’s phrase ‘the territory called “Ukraine”’ was not a slip of the tongue. It is entirely in line with Russian strategy.” Buda was reminded of a grim chapter of history “when Hungary was a scavenger of another country’s corpse”, referring to 1941, when Hungary was forced to participate in the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia despite the Treaty of Eternal Friendship signed by the Kingdoms of Yugoslavia and Hungary just months before. The moral dilemma led to the suicide of Pál Teleki, Hungary’s Prime Minister. In his farewell letter, Teleki wrote:
“We have become oath-breakers — out of cowardice [...] We have sided with the scoundrels — because not a word of the fabricated atrocities is true! Neither against the Hungarians nor even against the Germans! We will be scavengers of corpses! The most wretched nation.”
[1] We have written about Orbán’s witch hunt against George Soros on several occasions, e.g.
Lex CEU: A Kafkaesque Affair, and The Ailing European Academic Accreditation System Hacked by Illiberal ‘Polypore Science’ – An Interview with Hungarian Gender Studies Professor Andrea Pető.
[2]“The Dynasty” – here is Direkt36’s documentary about the economic empire of the Orbán family.
