Viktor Orban's 'illiberal democracy' - BBC Newsnight

Is Hungary turning away from the EU and heading towards a new form of ‘illiberal’ democracy? The BBC's special correspondent Allan Little reports.

Newsnight is the BBC's flagship news and current affairs TV programme - with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.

[HUNdAntae]

Meanwhile in Budapest, my sister can go out for a walk on the streets or to have a cheeky spritzer on the many patios of the city after dark without getting gangraped or stabbed. Not sure if she could do it in Paris or Berlin...

[michaelmewis]

I can't believe anything the BBC say anymore . .

[laszlon]

Long live to the illiberal demokracy
If we are not communists

[pukimano]

I wouldn't call this a balanced report. The very first sentences delivered by the narrator are positioning Hungary and the actions of its current government as a deviation from the path the west intended it to take. I don't feel like continuing. I'm sick and tired of these types of reports. Also I find the concept of the illiberal democracy appealing. Liberalism has made this continent rotten and it is nice to see that a country admits that something is wrong.

[alejandrosotomartin]

I´ve been recently in Budapest and the only thing i can say is that the illiberal democracy works quite well.

[coysthfc]

i would like my country sweden to like hungary towards imigartion, cuz now days in sweden our women cant go out when it is dark and it dangerous to be in some citys

[halfmoon]

12:35 Said by somebody who lives Europe "Europe may not survive." That "somebody" is Barbara Lerner Spectre.

[Vestergaard]

1:14
"If Hungary have had this system... would it qualify?"

As Hungarian here is my answer: If the than EU would have been anything like it is now, we would have never applied to join it...
And just 1 more thing for the westeners/liberals/EU commissioners: we are the ones that lived under oppressing powers for long time so we became masters of recognizing such powers. YOU are definitely one of them.

[eatpolo]

WOW! This was so blatantly biased! Shame a BBS. Real journalism is "outdated" I guess:(

[rogeronslow]

The BBC has sunk to a new low. Unbelievable.

[jamesu]

Just because Britain has leaders willing to give up their national identity doesnt mean that the Christian nations should give up theirs

[FirstLast-qbiq]

Well BBC, all I know is that Hungary isn't a migrant war-zone like Britain is, so what was your point again?

[heteibako]

Full of misleading information and he cannot even pronounce Budapest properly. Thank you, good night.

[danielgardos]

Why is bbc worry about the democracy in hungary? The elections were all democratic and the people made a choice. Hungarians know what is good for them and what is not. Worry about yourself instead. And stop judging millions of peoples straightforward choice..

[MH-fkcg]

For the love of the hungarian people. allow me to ask some provoking questions:

1. Why doesn’t Hungary pull out of EU? Could it be because of EU funds can be quite handy?
Show us that you got balls and integrity, and stick to the deal! Either you stay, or you back out of the deal! Member states can opt out. The door is open. Why the hell hesitate?

2. If Hungary seems to be the last hope of a "true” European country, why doesn’t other Europeans move there ?
With most respect, it doesn’t match well with the evident ever increasing brain drain of Hungary?
Those with education leave Hungary in large numbers, and the people who are not valuing their democratic rights stay. It seems like they don’t care if the politicians do represents the people’s will or not. Could it be that older generations aren’t used to democracy? Its a cliché, but that’s just how Orban wants it to be it seems.

3. Does Orban have selective Alzheimer’s? Maybe we should have shut our European borders in 1956 and rejected aiding the fleeing Hungarians?

4. If Orban is so perfect, why are many of his own people protesting him?

5. Is he himself aware of the fact that he is copying the values and tactics of his very enemies that through wars demolished and sieged his own country, just as Stalin and Hitler did?

6. If Hungarians should stick to their “history", they should worship some kind of authentic Tengrizmus, not some stupid "foreign" religion which came with a “outside" western Roman Empire?

7. Maybe many Hungarians are emigrating because they are fed up with a power sick kleptomaniac who is rewriting constitutional rules for his own good, and who also keeps up the tactics of distraction of blaming other factors and playing victim of a “dictatorship" (EU), when this is the very same dictatorship which he is building for his own gain in his home country? He seems to be in a hurry by shutting all doors for his own people to intervene, which clearly reveals his intentions, and clearly not on the grounds of which he was elected to.

8. Immigration aside, as a non-Hungarian, I do love the country, and it pisses me off to see this joke of a politician screwing his own people and keeping the poor getting poorer, and the rich getting richer. Employees are pushed into slave contracts, and many Hungarians are rightfully angry and protesting!
It seems like the same old story; well-payed corrupt politicians saying that they care about the people, but they really don’t give a shit. Hungarians fought bravely against the Russian oppression of their freedom in 1956. You seemed to be a promising new democracy who wanted change. Now you are reverting back to totalitarianism through Orban again. Have all those Hungarians who fought for their democratic rights battled and died in vein?? Would it still be good to support an elected prime minister that built a stadium in his home town by grabbing trillion of Forints from the people’s Pension programme?
Look at those guys at Fidesz: not good at either debating or being convincing.
Aren’t Hungarians damn fed up with the same kurva oligarchs ruling again and again?!! There are so many others who should have been in parliament instead of those cheap corrupt marionettes!

Why don’t you just overthrow that charlatan Orban ?! Do you still want a diverge into a one-party state?

I think that the Hungarian citizens deserve better!

Jó éjszakát!

[zoltangremsperger]

Hungary turning away from EU?! that's sounds weird from brexit Britain BBC

[DarkSciencez]

Truely the audio engineering quality of a major news network 👏

[johnjendryczka]

Orban Viktor may have some flaws, but nobody is perfect.
In my opinion Orban Viktor is the best leader of state in Europe, and i think that more of the heads of state in Europe should be a little more like him in order to preserve nationality.

[Hanika]

Thank you BBC for the information. The only problem is that you (and many others, especially those sitting in the EU Parliament) were not asked, since none of you is on the list of Hungarian voters ;) Thank God! We are smart people enough to be able to decide whether we want this "multiculti" or not, and three weeks ago we were asked to express our opinion on the issue. Democracy just works great here! We are proud of Mr Orban. Oh, and "we" means 2/3 of the Hungarian voters. Have a nice day!

[csababalint]

Illiberal democracy is where not the liberals dictate what people have to think, but despite of the liberal majority in Hungarian media, people has their own choice for their own country, which is a non-suicidal choice. Fidesz politicians are standing on the back of the poeple who voted for them.. it is as simple as the real democracy..