Lawfare Archive: Viktor Orbán Switches Democracy Off
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2024
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
From April 14, 2020: Nobody has been more aggressive about using the coronavirus crisis to seize power than Hungarian strong man Viktor Orbán. Orbán declared a state of emergency and has been ruling by decree. He has also instigated criminal penalties for spreading false information about the coronavirus, and his Fidesz party has effectively dissolved Parliament. Joining Benjamin Wittes to discuss the decline of Hungarian democracy is András Pap, a Hungarian scholar of constitutional law and a professor at Central European University's nationalist studies program in Budapest, and Anne Applebaum, essayist, author, and scholar of Eastern Europe, nationalism and the former Soviet Union. They talked about whether Orbán's seizure of power is as big a deal as it initially appears, about where Orbán stands in the pantheon of right wing populists worldwide, and about what, if anything, the European Union is likely to do about it.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
| 0:04.0 | To access an ad-free version of the Lawfair Podcast, |
| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of Lawfair at Patreon.com slash Lawfair. That's Patreon.com |
| 0:16.4 | slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath. I'm Julian Berman, in turn at Law Fair with an episode from the Law Fair Archive for July 21st, |
| 0:45.8 | 2024. |
| 0:46.8 | Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbonne has just wrapped up what the New York Times called a, quote, |
| 0:52.4 | frantic two weeks of self-appointed diplomacy, |
| 0:55.3 | which included meetings with former President Donald Trump |
| 0:57.8 | at Maralago, Vladimir Putin in Moscow, |
| 1:01.0 | Zizin Ping in Beijing, and Valotemirs-Lenski in Kiev to discuss the Russia-Ukraine |
| 1:06.4 | conflict. |
| 1:07.8 | Orban's quote-unquote peace mission comes weeks after he vowed to make Europe great again during his country's six-month |
| 1:14.6 | presidency of the European Union. For today's archive episode I chose a |
| 1:18.9 | conversation from the Law Fair Podcast that aired on April 14th, 2020. |
| 1:24.0 | In the episode, Benjamin Wittiz sat down with Andras Pop and Ann Applebaum |
| 1:28.5 | to discuss the decline of Hungarian democracy, |
| 1:31.3 | focusing on Orbaum's use of the coronavirus crisis to seize power. |
| 1:35.1 | They examined Orban's position among right-wing populists globally, responses from the |
| 1:39.7 | European Union, and more. more. I'm Benjamin Wittis and this is the Law Fair Podcast April 14th, 2020. |
| 1:56.5 | Nobody has been more aggressive about using the coronavirus crisis to seize power, then Hungarian strongman Victor Orban. |
| 2:07.0 | Orban declared a state of emergency and has been ruling by decree. |
| 2:14.0 | He also instigated criminal penalties for spreading false information about the coronavirus, |
... |
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