Highlight of any trip to Hungary: the (still) free print weeklies.
In my view, until a split in Fidesz, the collapse of one of a central tenets of Orban’s relationship with Hungarian voters, or the emergence of a major issue to galvanize the disgruntled, Orban, while bruised, is well placed to fight off this challenge.
In conclusion: we shouldn’t expect the Hungarian domino to fall by itself. Even if Tusk succeeds in pushing back illiberalism in Poland, Orban still has room to dig in his heels and radicalize further. He understands very well that he is getting more isolated.
4/b This is partly the consequence of Fidesz being a highly hierarchical party but also of how Orban has managed to preserve the aura of being completely w/o even peers, let alone alternatives, for most of the Fidesz crowd. There’s no Duda, Morawiecki, Ziobro or Gowin in Hungary
4/a Fidesz has also kept the kind of internal conflicts that often riddled PiS’s more fractious government, under lids. Apart from a minor spat between the governor of the central bank and the government, I cannot name any other major dispute from the past 4-5 years.
3/e This dominance has also contributed to the inability of various groups negatively affected by Orban’s regime to coordinate or at least build solidarity with each other, although this is of course a larger and more complex issue. This atomization is key for Fidesz.
3/d …and over the past years the government and Fidesz have spent a considerable amount of money on online propaganda as well (although of course they cannot control the entirety of the online media space).
3/c In Hungary, on the other hand, while there is of course media critical of the government (as Orban often points out), a Fidesz-controlled conglomerate owns the vast majority of offline news-focused outlets, the government controls a large chunk of the advertisement market…
3/b However, several major newspapers - e.g. Gazette Wyborcza, which shortly before the election broke the story about the cash-for-visa scandal that embarrassed the government campaigning on tighter border security - remained independent & reached voters.
https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-government-under-fire-cash-for-visa-scheme-scandal-election/
Poland’s government under fire after reports of cash-for-visas scheme
The ruling party is scrambling to distance itself from the scandal, which could dent its support ahead of next month’s election.
3/a The Polish media was not completely subjugated by the government. Yes, they made an attempt: the public broadcaster’s bias & excesses are infamous (as they are in Hungary) & Orlen’s 2020 purchase of regional papers was similar to the purchase of county papers by an Orban ally
