Hungary's Orban faces pivotal battle against ally-turned-foe
The Straits Times
BUDAPEST, March 25 - Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a self-styled country boy who put Hungary on the world map of right-wing populism, is facing the toughest fight of his 16-year rule against a former ally looking to oust him in a national election on April 12. Read more at straitstimes.com.
BUDAPEST, March 25 - Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a self-styled country boy who put Hungary on the world map of right-wing populism, is facing the toughest fight of his 16-year rule against a former ally looking to oust him in a national election on April 12.
Orban, 62, has won endorsements from U.S. President Donald Trump and some top European conservatives but most surveys show his nationalist Fidesz party losing to Peter Magyar's centre-right, pro-EU Tisza due to Hungary's economic stagnation.
A fiery anti-Communist youth leader during the Cold War, Orban, now the European Union's longest-serving leader, remains a patriotic hero to supporters, but critics at home and abroad accuse him of taking Hungary in an authoritarian direction.
Born in 1963 in a village west of Budapest, Orban trained as a lawyer, briefly studied political philosophy at Oxford, and even played semi-professional soccer before becoming prime minister for the first time in 1998 aged just 35.
Hungary joined NATO on Orban's watch but he lost power in 2002. After eight years in opposition, he won a landslide victory in 2010, enabling him to rewrite Hungary's constitution and pass major laws aimed at creating an "illiberal democracy".
His consolidation of executive power, new curbs on NGO activities and media freedoms, and a weakening of judicial independence led to clashes with the European Union over democratic standards, culminating in a decision to suspend billions of euros in funding for Hungary.
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