This is on the media's midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. This weekend, Hungary holds its national election,

and Vice President J.D. Vance flew there in advance to help boost the chances of incumbent Prime Minister Victor Orban,

an autocrat close to our president's heart. The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary.

They have tried to make Hungary less energy independent.

They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers.

And they've done it all because they hate this guy.

I'm here to help him in this campaign cycle. For the past 16 years, Orban has systematically

brought the institutions of Hungary under state control, from the courts to the education

system, to the press, gutting the democratic checks to his power. So Vance's visit to Hungary is

no surprise. Orban's model of democratic

illiberalism, dubbed the Hungarian model, has served as a kind of instruction manual for President

Trump and the Maga right. Last spring, we talked about it with Martan Gugliash, a founder and lead

anchor of Hungary's most influential independent

media outlet, a YouTube channel called Partizan. Turns out, Partizan played a vital role in the

rise of Peter Magyar, the opposition candidate now beating Orban in the polls.

So this guy appeared in our channel for the first time in Hungary.

He was absolutely unknown for the wider public.

It was funny because we even have to label him as the ex-husband of the Justice Minister,

because the Justice Minister was well known for the public.

Before appearing on Partizan, one of the very few outlets in Hungary

where opposition voices can be heard, Peter Magyar was not a politician. He was a kind of whistleblower.

So he said that he is fed up with the style of the government. He is fed up with the misconduct of

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