Viktor Orbán Switches Democracy Off
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2020
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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. |
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| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | The real star of the event was Victor Orbán, and in particular, |
| 0:39.0 | what these parties admire is the fact is his crackdown on universities. |
| 0:43.0 | So he's in control of universities. |
| 0:45.0 | He's eliminated subjects that he doesn't like. |
| 0:48.0 | His control of academia, which is the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, |
| 0:53.0 | is now which used to have an independent status, is now under state control. |
| 0:57.0 | And of course, his control of media. |
| 0:59.0 | I'm Benjamin Wittes, and this is the LawFair podcast April 14, 2020. |
| 1:07.0 | Nobody has been more aggressive about using the coronavirus crisis to seize power |
| 1:13.0 | than Hungarian strongman Victor Orbán. |
| 1:17.0 | Orbán declared a state of emergency and has been ruling by decree. |
| 1:23.0 | He also instigated criminal penalties for spreading false information about the coronavirus, |
| 1:31.0 | and his feedash party has effectively dissolved parliament. |
| 1:36.0 | Joining me to discuss the decline of Hungarian democracy is Andros Pop, |
| 1:42.0 | a Hungarian scholar of constitutional law and a professor at Central European University's |
| 1:48.0 | Nationalist Studies program in Budapest, and Ann Applebaum, |
... |
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