Viktor Orbn's Authoritarian Playbook
This article is from 2020 but is relevant to the US today.
Scapegoat minorities
Like most strongmen, Orbán scapegoats minorities in order to draw the public’s attention away from real problems. In Orbán’s case, migrants and refugees, especially if they are from Muslim countries.
In 2015, Orbán cited the European refugee crisis to justify giving police the power to conduct searches without a warrant and collect bulk phone data.
Undermine the judiciary
Constitutional amendments enacted in 2013 — and criticized by the EU, the United States and human rights groups — annulled previous Constitutional Court rulings and barred the court from overturning laws that had the support of two-thirds of lawmakers.
After winning reelection in 2018, Orbán created a separate, administrative court system for issues related to asylum, elections and police violence, with judges handpicked by Orbán’s justice minister.
Several judges inexplicably resigned from the independent National Judicial Council before it was due to announce the result of an inquiry into allegations that Tünde Handó, an Orbán loyalist, had packed the courts in her capacity as chief of the judiciary. Orbán elevated her to the Constitutional Court a year later.
Control the media
One of the first things Orbán did after coming to power in 2010 was smother the voices of critics. A new media law ordered outlets to register with a media control body, whose members were appointed by parliament. The panel can impose fines of up to €1 million for “imbalanced news coverage”. News programs are not allowed to devote more than 20 percent of their airtime to crime stories. Journalists have been stripped of legal protection to keep their sources confidential.
The law was widely condemned, including by the European Parliament. It had little effect. Orbán’s government systematically dismantled the free press. The state pulled advertising from critical outlets, depriving them of income. Népszabadság, the biggest independent newspaper, was forced to shut down in 2016. Hundreds of private news media were simultaneously donated to a single holding company run by Orbán’s friends in 2018. Orbán barred regulators from scrutinizing the transaction, arguing it was in the “national interest”.
more at link
https://atlanticsentinel.com/2020/10/viktor-orbans-authoritarian-playbook/
