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What Next | Lessons From Hungary

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump has a lot of similarities—and something of a bromance—with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. And those who wish to resist Trump’s Orbán-like, right-wing strongman tendencies could learn something from the resistance in Hungary.  Guest: Gábor Scheiring, former member of the Hungarian parliament and assistant professor of comparative politics at Georgetown University Qatar. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:32.6

I've been on this quest to find new analogies to describe what's happening with Donald Trump and the federal government right now.

0:45.8

And that's how last week I found myself on the line with Gabor sharing.

0:54.4

Gabor, how often are you back in Hungary these days?

0:58.5

I try to go there at least once or twice a year.

1:04.2

So last I was there was for the end of the year,

1:08.6

around Christmas in December.

1:13.3

Gabor is a professor now, but a decade back, he was a member of Parliament.

1:18.7

He was just 29 years old, representing Budapest as Prime Minister Victor Orban came to power.

1:26.3

Gabor had a front row seat as Orban remade his country,

1:30.5

which is part of why he doesn't live there anymore.

1:34.4

When I asked him what it feels like to return to Hungary these days, he sighed.

1:39.8

Overall, my generic personal impression is rather bleak.

1:46.7

The way the country has been completely changed by Viktor Orban, it has become a more frustrated

1:54.3

country, a darker place in many ways.

1:58.9

People's relationships with each other, I think, are more hostile.

2:03.4

You've probably heard Victor Orban's name in the last few months. For a lot of conservatives,

2:10.2

Orban's Hungary serves as a model. When Prime Minister Orban visited Washington last year,

...

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