THE GUARDIAN: Forum speakers said Donald Trump’s second term resembles strongman Viktor Orbán’s first years in power
Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a “it can’t happen here” mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said.
Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungary’s strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European country’s experience held vital lessons for Trump’s opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House.
Hungary was important because Trump and his “Make America great again” (Maga) movement have used Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party as a role model, she said.
“I invite everybody to study the processes that happened [in Hungary] and elsewhere, because autocratic learning is real,” said Cseh, a member of Hungary’s opposition Momentum Movement. “Backsliding just went by us like a train, without anybody realizing how far it had gotten. So it’s very important to pay attention from the very beginning … [and] to mobilize.” » | Robert Tait | Wednesday, July 16, 2025