"Sunday’s vote may well be one of the most important elections in the history of postcommunist Europe. It will test the longevity of a regime that has deviated from principles of democracy and the rule of law that were vindicated by the peaceful revolutions of 1989 and later secured by the European Union, which incorporated Hungary as part of its eastward expansion in 2004."
~ Isaac Stanley-Becker
"Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, is a central figure in the international far right, and indeed the man, more than any other, who created the networks that normalized what he himself calls 'illiberalism.' Should he lose, as all signs indicate he will, this would be blow to far more familiar figures such as JD Vance and Donald Trump, who are Orbán’s pupils."
~ Timothy Snyder
"It’s not a big place, but it’s symbolic. It is a role model for right-wing authoritarians everywhere. It still formally has the institutions of democracy, but has for the past 16 years been a one party state — ruled by a right-wing authoritarian ethno-nationalist regime that enforces its will partly by rigging elections, partly through an extensive system of crony capitalism that rewards its friends and punishes its enemies."
~ Paull Krugman
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/delusions-of-grandeur-hungary-edition
Trump really doesn't understand America's role in the world
"In other words, it’s a MAGA kind of place. It’s what they would like to do to the United States, although with less sophistication and more brutality.
Donald Trump has been frantically trying to keep Viktor Orban in power, largely in ways that demonstrate that he really doesn’t understand how the world views him. Sending JD Vance to campaign for Orban is not helpful to Orban. It’s a boost to the opposition."
"It’s a boost to the opposition. Spewing frantically on Truth Social about how important it is that Orban win is, again, a gift to the Hungarian opposition."
"Tomorrow Hungary votes.
If Orbán falls — and the polls suggest he may — the same weekend Vance was supposed to be holding the illiberal international together in Budapest, the [negotiating] table in Islamabad gets harder to hold. The 'strongmen love me' narrative requires the strongmen to remain strong. The model has to work."
~ Mike Brock
Simon Rosenberg shares a photo of the anti-Orbán rally Friday night in Budapest.
#Hungary #Orbán #Trump #Vance #authoritarianism
/7
https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/hungary-votes-tomorrow-understanding
"The current global crisis created by Donald Trump encompasses three simultaneous, intertwining, wag-the-dog phenomena involving three different people. Has this ever happened before?
Donald Trump seems to have started the war primarily to distract attention from his patent complicity in the Epstein abattoir."
~ Gene Weingarten
#Trump #Netanyahu #Orbán #chaos #authoritarianism #strongmen
/8
"Benjamin Netanyahu talked Trump into it because he is facing an immediate corruption trial at home, and this has provided both a distraction, and a postponement, and, conceivably, exoneration should he be perceived as a national hero.
Viktor Orban, Hungarian despot, faces an election tomorrow. Polls have shown that he is losing big. The war he has helped create has provided him with a last-minute campaign weapon he is using:"
#Trump #Netanyahu #Orbán #chaos #authoritarianism #strongmen
/9
"Basically, he is making the sleazy argument that as a lapdog opportunistic ally of the United States, Russian and Iran he is uniquely qualified to keep his country out of the war so Hungarians won’t die."
#Trump #Netanyahu #Orbán #chaos #authoritarianism #strongmen
/10
"The biggest authoritarian monsters of our time — Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping — have bred smaller monsters who seem less dangerous than the big ones but are causing almost as much chaos and cruelty.
I’m talking especially about Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary’s Victor Orbán."
~ Robert Reich
#Trump #Netanyahu #Orbán #chaos #authoritarianism #strongmen
/11
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/tomorrows-election-that-merits-your
"Both have held their offices by clinging to bigoted, authoritarian, homophobic, anti-Muslim views and actions that are poisoning much of the Middle East and Europe. …
Both Netanyahu and Orbán also have the support of the Trump regime and its white, Christian, nationalist cultural warriors."
#Trump #Netanyahu #Orbán #chaos #authoritarianism #strongmen
/12
"Orbán’s removal would send a timely signal to the rest of the world about to deal with the monsters, large and small, who are now threatening global peace, prosperity, and stability while also destroying whatever moral authority the West still possesses."
#Trump #Netanyahu #Orbán #chaos #authoritarianism #strongmen
/13
William Lindsey 
Alex P Roe 
Vee
Art - US Expat in Spain
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