Hungarian opposition urges Democrats to organize Trump’s autocratic takeover | Trump administration

Democrats The 2026 midterm elections must be organized urgently and avoid stopping the “cannot happen here” mentality Donald Trump Hungarian opposition lawmakers said that by holding a full-scale autocratic acquisition.

Katalin Cseh, critic HungaryStrongman Prime Minister Viktor Orbánthe forum on authoritarianism said the experience of Central European countries has provided crucial lessons to Trump’s opponents who have tried to resist attacks on American institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House.

Hungary is important, she said, because Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement took Orbán and his ruling Fides party as role models.

“I invite everyone to study what happened [in Hungary] There are also other places, because the learning of dictatorship is real,” said CSEH, a member of the Hungarian opposition momentum movement. “Slide backwards like a train, and no one realizes how far it has gone. Therefore, it is very important to pay attention from the beginning… [and] mobilization. ”

Hungary, a member of the EU and NATO, is often called a role model for former liberal democracy and becomes a competitive autocracy. Orbán exaggerated his belief in “liberal democracy” and consolidated his power over the courts, the media and the university in his 15-year tenure and four consecutive election victories.

At a webinar organized by the American Progress, CSEH warned U.S. voters not to believe that their country is not affected by such developments.

“I do believe that many Americans who think it will only happen to others, and I think that mentality must be fought,” she said.

“Start prepare for a midterm like yesterday. Join every protest, every March, stand next to everyone under attack, whether you belong to your group or something you don’t share in person. You have to stand side by side with each other, every March. [with] Each other, help and support those who may feel isolated and lonely. ”

She urged Democrats Activists will form a widely inclusive “movement” and find “the midterm of candidates or any election that may excite people – not necessarily the old faces they have been seeing like that they have been distrusting, but visionary leaders…who are part of the community, are a persecuted person.”

Leaders like Trump and Orban can only effectively oppose “legal, technical, technocratic attitudes” and tend to “excite voters.”

“Authorits aren’t always good. So if the focus is shifted to these areas, and not just technical descriptions of what’s happening in court, then the cost of living, the healthcare crisis, the education crisis, it’s something people can connect with more.”

The similarity with Hungary is that polls show that Orbán will of course lose next year’s general election, led by the opposition Tisza party, former member of the former Prime Minister’s Party.

His government’s attempt to ban the annual Pride Parade held in Budapest last month is a sign of the decline of authority in Orbán’s decline When an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets, it was counterproductive Ignore. Thousands of LGBTQ+ activists have participated in previous events.

Szabolcs Panyi, a reporter for Hungarian website Direkt36, said Trump’s attitude to the media borrowed from the scripts used by Orbán, and he took a series of measures to reduce journalists’ independence.

This included expelling established channels from the briefings in favor of friendly journalists and “propagandaists,” a method of imitation by the White House that excludes journalists from the Associated Press and invites representatives from right-wing organizations and social media influencers.

“In particular, what is how some large media or owners or large groups can appease Donald Trump By resolving a lawsuit or firing a reporter [or] He said, editor. This is indeed similar to what happened in Hungary in the 2010s. ”

Paramount Global, owner of CBS, A $16 million settlement Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit this month in his 60-minute interview with 2024 Democratic rival Kamala Harris. ABC Agree to pay Trump made $15 million last December after he prosecuted an inaccurate description of the sexual assault charge filed by writer E Jean Carroll last December.

Pani said Trump’s attempts to cut funding for public broadcasters such as PBS and Voice of America were also inspired by Orbán.

“[Orbán] He said that in public broadcasting, public television, it has become propaganda in a few months. “It’s really scary to see something similar happening in the United States,” he said. Unity is especially important, so whenever something similar happens, protests should occur. Journalists should support their colleagues and tell readers that if it happens in one media, it can happen to others as well. ”

Ceylan Akçe, a member of the Turkish pro-Kurdian Equality and Democratic Party, said that more than two decades of dominance under the leadership of the country’s authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has proven that political opponents should not “wait for the storm to pass”.

“It will continue to rain,” she said. “If you wait for it to stop, it won’t, and when you’re in the eyes of a storm, you have to keep mobilizing and never get discouraged.”

Tamara Tripic, opposition MP in Serbia AleksandarVučićThe president is accused of establishing a dictatorship that sparked opposition protests, warning that modern authoritarians have pretended their actions behind the cloak of legitimacy.

“We have to know they are using [tools that] She said it is usually legal but abusive, institutional, but hollowed out in appearance but is essentially authoritarian. This doesn’t look like a dictatorship, but it functions like one. Our problem, especially if you are progressive, is that…usually people are afraid of the freedom we offer. They are willing to exchange some freedom for the fantasy of order, identity and security. ”