Hungarian Anschluss, Orban Style. Poland Drives Stake Into Heart of Democracy.

There's a lot going on in Europe these days that escapes much notice on our side of the pond. We hear about the rise of  "illiberal democracy," a term coined by its high priest, Hungary's Viktor Orban. The odious Orban is now setting his sights on restoring Hungary to its pre-WWI greatness.  His strategy is to stage a "virtual reunification" of former Hungarian territory that is now part of Slovenia, Serbia and Romania.

A century since the Treaty of Trianon dramatically shrank the size of the Hungarian state and stranded millions of Hungarians beyond its borders, Orban is pouring money into ethnic Hungarian communities in neighbouring states, issuing passports and picking up voters and political leverage for the ruling Fidesz party. 

The largesse, however, has come at a price for democracy, according to a BIRN investigation in Slovenia, Serbia and Romania, where Hungarian spending shot up from 40 million euros in 2015 to 330 million in 2018 and amounted to more than three quarters of a billion over the four-year period. 

In these countries, local proxies beholden to Budapest now wield a worrying degree of influence over media, culture and development funds, imitating Orban’s own ‘illiberal democracy’.

The article contains links to reports on just what Orban is up to in these neighbouring states and it's a bit scary.

The photo above shows Trump welcoming Orban to the Axis of Authoritarianism.

Meanwhile, another member of the Axis of Authoritarianism, Poland, is making progress in suppressing judicial independence and the rule of law.

Since the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS) took control of the lower house of Poland’s parliament in 2015, the country’s democracy has been under attack. Judicial independence has been of particular concern. 

The situation has already forced the European Union in 2017 to take up Article 7 deliberations that could ultimately suspend Poland’s voting rights within the European Council. 

The ongoing saga between Brussels and Warsaw came to a head on earlier this month when the opposition-controlled Polish Senate rejected a controversial draft law aimed at punishing justices who question controversial judicial reforms. 

Unfortunately, this victory was short-lived. The draft law returned to parliament, where lawmakers from the Law and Justice party hold the majority. Last week, the PiS-controlled lower chamber overturned the Senate’s vote, and approved the bill. Now that the legislation has passed in the lower house, it is up to PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda, who is expected to sign the bill into law.

The photo above shows Trump inducting Duda into the Axis at the White House.