Viktor Orbn's Authoritarian Playbook- Scapegoat minorities. Undermine the judiciary. Control the media.

[jalan48]

Last edited Tue Jan 28, 2025, 03:27 PM - Edit history (1)

https://atlanticsentinel.com/2020/10/viktor-orbans-authoritarian-playbook/

Scapegoat minorities
Like most strongmen, Orbán scapegoats minorities in order to draw the public’s attention away from real problems. In Orbán’s case, migrants and refugees, especially if they are from Muslim countries.
In 2015, Orbán cited the European refugee crisis to justify giving police the power to conduct searches without a warrant and collect bulk phone data.

Undermine the judiciary
Constitutional amendments enacted in 2013 — and criticized by the EU, the United States and human rights groups — annulled previous Constitutional Court rulings and barred the court from overturning laws that had the support of two-thirds of lawmakers.
According to Cas Mudde, a University of Georgia professor who is an expert on right-wing populism, the constitutional amendments completed Hungary’s transition from a liberal democracy to a “competitive authoritarian regime”. He told The New York Times:
With the government also in full control of the elections, with no independent judiciary oversight, we can no longer pretend elections will be even remotely free and fair.

Control the media
The final ingredient of Orbán’s autocracy is control and manipulation of the news media.
One of the first things Orbán did after coming to power in 2010 was smother the voices of critics.
A new media law ordered outlets to register with a media control body, whose members were appointed by parliament. The panel can impose fines of up to €1 million for “imbalanced news coverage”Earlier this year, the editor of one of Hungary’s few remaining independent news websites, Index, was fired after an Orbán ally acquired a 50-percent stake in the company. (2020)
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Trump and Republicans have met privately with Orban duing the past few years learning the ropes on how to make an authoritarian takeover of our government. Look for more unheard of rulings and policies in the months ahead.

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

This has been every tyrant's playbook for a long, long, long time.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Yep, it's Autocracy 101...

the tools may change over time, but the strategies are as old as time itself.

[H2O Man]

3. Well said.

Very well said.