THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Hungarian leader has secured power by keeping control over the news media. Now, a political opponent is starting to show the limits of his tactics.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has long been hailed as a model by right-wing politicians in the United States and Europe, lauded for a string of election victories and his crackdowns on migrants and on activists pushing progressive social issues.
“It’s nice to have a strong man running your country,” President Trump said last year of Mr. Orban, who has been in power for 15 years.
Mr. Orban’s strength, reinforced by a sprawling propaganda machine geared to the destruction of his opponents, has seen off would-be rivals on both the left and the right in four consecutive elections.
Now for the first time, however, he is struggling to land a knockout blow on his enemies.
His most potent current rival, Peter Magyar, a former loyalist who heads a surging opposition movement, has in recent months been savaged by media controlled by Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party as an abusive husband, a traitor, a crook and a sex pest.
The nonstop vilification — described by Mr. Magyar as a “tsunami of lies” — has been surprising in only one respect: It has not worked. » | Andrew Higgins | Reporting from Budapest and Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary | Sunday, October 12, 2025
