Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed to take “revenge” against his political enemies after his victory in elections in April, and is now carrying it out. A new package of laws known as the “Stop Soros” bill (the Hungarian-born financier is the government's favorite liberal boogeyman), was passed by Hungary's parliament, with vicious irony, on World Refugee Day, and it effectively criminalizes organizations that work to help undocumented immigrants. As the New York Times summarizes, under the new law, “helping migrants legalize their status in Hungary by distributing information about the asylum process or providing them with financial assistance could result in a 12-month jail term.” The government also changed the constitution to make it illegal to “settle foreign populations” in Hungary, a response to EU efforts to resettle refugees throughout the bloc's member states.
Hungary's slide into authoritarianism under Orban—or “illiberal democracy” as he calls it— has earned him criticism from abroad, but he's had a fairly simpatico relationship with the current U.S. administration. Orban was the first foreign leader to endorse Trump's candidacy in 2016, and the two leaders spoke four days ago, discussing “the need for strong national borders,” just as the domestic backlash to Trump family-separation policy was growing. Steve Bannon has gone as far as to describe Orban, who portrays himself as a defender of Western Christian civilization against Islam, as “Trump before Trump.”
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