Orban uses Covid-19 crisis for ‘power grab’

What do you call a country whose government openly embraces illiberalism and exults in the crisis of democracy, cheers the perceived decline of the US and the rise of its authoritarian challengers, makes irredentist claims against its neighbors, and spreads decay within key institutions of the American-led international order? If you answered “NATO ally,” you are, unfortunately, correct.
Under PM Viktor Orban, Hungary is weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union from the inside as Russia and China pressure them from the outside; it is setting a terrible precedent as the US reckons with resurgent authoritarianism within a number of its alliances. It may be premature for the US to simply walk away from an ally that more often undercuts than advances American interests. But it’s not too early to start taking steps in that direction.
The latest marker of Hungary’s estrangement came in a speech that Orban recently gave to mark the centennial of the Treaty of Trianon, the post-World War I agreement that established the frontiers of the modern Hungarian state. Orban portrayed Hungarian history as a story of exploitation by rapacious empires, with the “hypocritical American empire” the most recent offender. He touted the achievements of his increasingly authoritarian regime in strengthening and purifying the Hungarian nation. And he described a world in which America is declining, China and Russia are ascending, the EU is dying, and Hungary can look only to itself for salvation.
You wouldn’t know, from listening to the speech, that Hungary has been a member of NATO — the world’s most powerful grouping of democracies — for more than 20 years. Then again, you wouldn’t know this from most of what Orban has done since taking power.
Orban has established himself as one of the great autocratic opportunists of the Covid-19 crisis, using the pandemic to rule by decree and amass formidable emergency powers. This power grab is part of a long arc of illiberalism, through which Orban has turned an imperfect democracy into a deeply corrupt, quasi-authoritarian state. Orban’s government has thoroughly rigged the political system and suppressed criticism; it has rallied nationalist sentiment by demonising migrants, and religions.
In 2014, Orban gave a major speech heralding the decline of liberal democracy and the rise of the “illiberal state.” Since then, he has created a system that looks a lot like Vladimir Putin’s regime in its early stages.
Orban’s foreign policy isn’t much better. Hungary has undermined NATO support for Ukraine and supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Budapest appears to be something of a playground for Russian spies. Orban’s government has used lingering resentment over the harsh peace imposed at Trianon — which deprived Hungary of most of its land and population — to stoke tensions with Romania and lay claim to the loyalties of ethnic Hungarians living abroad.

—Bloomberg