Focus on Hungary

The Hungarian civil society plays a crucial role in countering radical rhetoric, yet populists trends blur boundaries between a mainstream that is leaning ever more to the far-right and radical right-wing ideologies.   

This is the first part of an article series originally published in the online social theory magazine New Equality, describing how Orbán's system, after gaining political and economic power, consciously and systematically built up its educational and cultural institutions and shaped its intellectual holdover by referring to Antonio Gramsci.

After the pedophile scandal causing the President and the Minister of Justice to resign, the Hungarian Prime Minister’s credibility among his supporters is at its highest level of risk since he came to power in 2010.

Will Hungary be able to credibly fulfil its task of holding the EU Presidency? This key question has frequently popped up during discussions in the Brussels bubble in recent months.

Ahead of the 2024 European election, the latest illiberal attempt of the Hungarian government to mute the opposition and silence political criticism comes in the form of a law dubbed “the protection of national sovereignty”. We examined the European perception of the proposed law.

The new Hungarian legislative package known as the "Protection of Sovereignty Act" contains some legitimate elements. However, while serious dangers to the country's sovereignty are outside its purview, a new agency is now empowered to harass anybody accused of "serving foreign interests."

Under the umbrella of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), thirteen journalists, press freedom, and civil society organizations are calling the EU institutes and the governments of member states to impose greater transparency on the media and their relations with political decision-makers and economic players.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Government, in power since 2010, has systematically curtailed LGBTIQ+ rights. Hundreds of such parents have adopted children with their same-sex spouses or partners, have given birth to children themselves or have availed themselves of surrogates to have their own genetically-related offspring. This article offers a glimpse into the lives of two such families in Hungary.

Since 2010, the Hungarian Government has been advocating for a conservative, restrictive notion of the family. The Ninth Amendment of the Fundamental Law led to the adoption of the so-called ‘child protection’ law (also referred to as the ‘anti-LGBT’ or propaganda law). This article tells the story of a successful advocacy campaign against these developments.