This is what authoritarianism and nationalism gets you... Hungary downgraded to "partly free" [View all]
Hungary has become the first European Union country to be designated as partly free in an annual gauge of democratic freedoms, underscoring the effects of Prime Minister Viktor Orbans drive to create an illiberal state.
The erosion of democracy under Orban constitutes the most dramatic decline ever charted in the EU, Freedom House, a Washington-based think-tank, said in its annual Freedom in the World report. All other 27 EU members retained a free label.
The government in Budapest rejected the report, saying in a statement Tuesday that Freedom House was part of the empire of George Soros (Doesn't THAT sound familiar, blaming The One Jew), the Hungarian-born billionaire investor and philanthropist. Most of Freedom Houses funding comes from the U.S. government.
Orban, who returned to power in 2010, has overseen the most extensive centralization of power since the end of communism. Hes appointed allies to head formerly independent institutions, extended his influence over parts of the court system and curbed dissent by tightening regulations over universities and civil society. The EU is currently probing whether to sanction the perceived rule-of-law violations here and in Poland. Hungary has become a trailblazer when it comes to dismantling democracy, said Zselyke Csaky, Freedom Houses head of research for Europe and Eurasia. Its spawned copy-cats inside the EU as well as across the Atlantic.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-05/hungary-becomes-first-partly-free-eu-nation-in-democracy-gauge