Viktor Orbán

Vik­tor Orbán is Hun­gary’s longest-serv­ing Prime Min­is­ter, hold­ing pow­er since 2010, with a pre­vi­ous term from 1998–2002. He has trans­formed Hun­gary from a lib­er­al democ­ra­cy into what he terms an “illib­er­al state,” imple­ment­ing nation­al­ist poli­cies and con­sol­i­dat­ing con­trol over the media, judi­cia­ry, and edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions. He main­tains close ties with Rus­si­a’s Vladimir Putin and has fre­quent­ly clashed with the Euro­pean Union over demo­c­ra­t­ic back­slid­ing and rule of law con­cerns. Orbán began his polit­i­cal career as a lib­er­al anti-com­mu­nist stu­dent leader in the late 1980s, but grad­u­al­ly shift­ed to right-wing pop­ulist posi­tions. Under his lead­er­ship, Hun­gary has become a mod­el for con­ser­v­a­tive politi­cians world­wide who admire his stance against immi­gra­tion, LGBTQ+ rights, and what he calls “woke ideology.”