With elections in Hungary coming up this April, the country’s incumbent prime minister, Viktor Orban, is ramping up efforts to stay in power, resorting to authoritarian tactics to sway the vote in his favor once again. Orban and his Fidesz Party are facing a real challenge this election cycle, especially as the popularity of his opponent, Peter Magyar (a center-right candidate), appears to be rising according to recent polling. In response, Orban’s government created billboards and AI-generated messages depicting Magyar (and his Tisza Party) as an enemy of the people, who, through his support for Ukraine, would represent a foreign threat to Hungary. Orban has even gone as far as to send a letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing Zelenskyy of attempting to install a pro-Ukrainian government into power in Hungary. According to the organization Freedom House, which is dedicated to advocacy and research for democracy, Hungary scores a 65/100 for overall freedom. This makes it a “partly free” nation, and one that has declined significantly in terms of civil rights and freedoms since Orban rose to power. Orban remains the longest-serving prime minister in Hungary, where he rules over a populist, illiberal democracy.
Orban and his far-right, populist government are not your typical authoritarian regime of old. Like many other modern autocrats, Orban and his government employ subtle strategies and tactics to erode democracy. The article titled “Stealth Authoritarianism,” published in the Iowa Law Review by Ozan O. Varol highlights key aspects of modern autocrats and the decidedly stealthy tactics that they employ (Varol, 2015). Varol argues that modern autocrats use legal avenues to consolidate power. For example, multiparty elections may take place, but the incumbent typically holds an unfair advantage over their opponents (Varol, 2015). As a result, the incumbent remains in power for far longer than if elections were competitive. Hungary under Viktor Orban illustrates Varol’s theory very well. Orban is the longest serving prime minister in Europe, and his efforts to keep the opposition out of power have proven quite successful. For sixteen years, the opposition has struggled to gain any traction in the country’s government. Orban has packed the nation’s important institutions with party loyalists, and his Fidesz Party has worked to dismantle the democratic processes in the country through legal means to keep the opposition out of power.
Orban’s tactics of disinformation to win the election are also representative of a key characteristic of populist figures: anti-pluralism. In his book What is Populism? (2016), Jan-Werner Müller defines the important characteristics of populism, starting with anti-pluralism. Populists are not fond of political pluralism, as it leads to competition, which can also lead to more checks on their power. Orban’s disinformation campaigns against his opponent have sought to portray Magyar as a foreign actor that sides with Ukraine, and he has made the divide between his Fidesz Party and Magyar’s Tisza Party quite clear. Müller also argues that populists depict their opponents as “immoral” and claim that they are the only ones who know what the people want (Müller 2016: 22). Orban is driving the narrative that he and his party are pro-peace, whereas the opposition is pro-war. He is positioning his campaign as the only choice for prosperity for Hungary, implying that a vote for Orban is to choose peace, while a vote for Magyar and his Tisza Party is to choose war. Prime Minister Viktor Orban embodies modern populist authoritarianism, and the upcoming election is sure to be pivotal for Hungary’s democracy.
Works Cited
Muller, J. W. (2016). What Is Populism?. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Varol, O. O. (2015). “Stealth Authoritarianism”. Iowa Law Review, Volume 100:(1673), 14 pages.
Hann, E., & Nagy, R. (2026, February 25). “Median: Tisza is in full swing at the campaign opening, already has a 20 percent advantage”. HVG360. https://hvg.hu/360/20260225_median-vezet-tisza-mar-20-szazalek-az-elonye.
Garamvolgyi, F., & Kassam, A. (2026 February 27). “Hungary’s Viktor Orban seeking to drum up votes by doing down Ukraine”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/27/hungarys-viktor-orban-seeking-to-drum-up-votes-by-doing-down-ukraine.
Dudik, A. (2026, February 27). “Is Viktor Orban Running Out of Road?”. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-27/is-viktor-orban-going-to-lose-election-in-hungary.
Wilson, C. (2025, February 11). “Hungary’s Viktor Orban faces challenge to his illiberal democracy”. The Interpreter. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/hungary-s-viktor-orban-faces-challenge-his-illiberal-democracy.
Than, K. (2026, February 13). “Orban Scales Up ‘war or peace’ campaign as Hungary heads to pivotal vote”. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/orban-scales-up-war-or-peace-campaign-hungary-heads-pivotal-vote-2026-02-13/#:~:text=Summary,is%20firmly%20under%20government%20control.
Freedom House. (2024). Hungary: Freedom in the World 2025 Country Report | Freedom House. Freedom House. https://freedomhouse.org/country/hungary/freedom-world/2025.
It’s really eye opening to see how Orban uses stealth tactics to keep his grip on power without technically breaking any laws. By framing his opponent as a threat and claiming he is the only one who can create peace, he’s making it impossible for a fair debate to even happen. This is a great example of how modern leaders don’t need to get rid of elections to stay in power, all they have to do is frame their opponent as some sort of threat and it scares their citizens enough to not support the opposing candidate. Seeing a partly free rating for a country in central Europe is a huge wake up call for how quickly these stealth tactics can work.
Reading this after Orban’s loss in Hungary’s election really demonstrates how democratic practices can still persevere in the face of harsh democratic erosion by an incumbent politician. All the effort that Orban put into ensuring that he could maintain his grip on power highlights how strong democratic institutions can really be, despite his seemingly never-ending efforts to paint the opposition in a negative light and major government reforms. It will be very interesting to see how the new government’s interaction with the institutions stacked with loyalists will be, or if any reforms will be undertaken to return Hungary to a more democratic state. I think it can be expected that the incoming Prime Minister will follow legal paths to reestablish democracy in Hungary, seeing that he will have the 2/3 majority in the legislature that Orban had when undertaking his reforms. I am also curious to see whether the incoming Prime Minister will maintain the state media apparatus that Orban employed, or if that system will be taken apart and independent media resotred.