How Hungary's Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark
How Hungary's Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has extended his party's control over the media, directly affecting informed democratic participation.
In the months leading up to elections for the European Parliament, Hungarians were warned that casting a ballot against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would be a vote for all-out war.
The right-wing Fidesz party cast the June 9 election as an existential struggle, one that could preserve peace in Europe if Orbán won — or fuel widespread instability if he didn’t. To sell that bold claim, Orbán used a sprawling pro-government media empire that’s dominated the country’s political discourse for more than a decade.
The tactic worked, as it has since Orbán returned to power in 2010, and his party came first in the elections — though not by the margins it was used to. An upstart party, led by a former Fidesz insider, attracted disaffected voters and took 29% of the vote to Fidesz’s 44%.
“Everything has fallen apart in Hungary. The state essentially does not function, there’s only propaganda and lies,” said Péter Magyar, the leader of that new party who has emerged in recent months as perhaps the most formidable challenge yet to Orbán’s rule.
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That is exactly Taiwan's now minority ruling party DPP has been doing for the past 8 years.
DPP has more than enuf tax payers' money to buy cyber armies, put money in its own pocket, and buy US support thru undelivered weaponry purchase. DPP’s incumbent president Lai was once labeled as CCP insider by DPP former president Tsai’s cyber army, for he intended to run against her in 2020 presidential primary (https://youtu.be/lNaui-b0Dpk&). A DPP-certified CCP insider. LOL.
In the past 8 years, TW’s president Tsai (2016-2024) did a lot of weird things that seem to be intended to ruin Taiwan (so US can take over TSMC, and probably also make TW the next Ukraine?), leading to DPP getting only 40% votes in both 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections. Her London LSE doctoral thesis scandal was covered up by US. (Just Google “Tsai Ing-wen LSE thesis) Before US election of 2020, TW's DPP was pro Trump (similar constituents, southern farmers and lower educated) and propagated, by subsidized media, Biden’s pedo-like behaviors and his son’s scandals. But after the election result, she immediately gave congrates to Biden, and later lamented his dog’s death on FB (this you probably knew). Lots of tax payers' money went to DPP's pocket.