Orbán decided he didn't want to share power. Beginning around 2014, he attacked Simicska behind the scenes — a fight that went extremely public the next year, when Simicska's top deputies resigned en masse to avoid getting on the government's bad side.https://www.direkt36.hu/en/feltarul-simicska-bukasanak-titkos-tortenete/ …
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Simicska called Orbán "geci," a Hungarian insult that literally translates to "sperm." He backed an opposition party, the far-right Jobbik faction, in the 2018 elections. That year, Politico named him one of the world's most 28 influential people https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-2018-ranking/lajos-simicska/ …pic.twitter.com/XCFZDhZ2xJ
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But Orbán doesn't play by democratic rules. He went after Simicska's business empire, working to dry up its funds. In the 2018 elections, Orbán and Fidesz again won a two-thirds majority — in an election international observers concluded was unfair https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/385959.pdf …pic.twitter.com/xws3BmkKqd
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Simicska took his shot and missed. The result? Government pressure destroyed his entire business empire. Last I checked, he was living in a remote village; his only remaining business interest was his wife's agricultural firm.
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This is how authoritarianism works in Hungary. There is nothing like it in real democracies; comparisons to "cancel culture" in the United States are laughable. It's why leading democracy watchdogs and academic experts have concluded Hungary is no longer a democracy.pic.twitter.com/nOjEvx7Qn1
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The opposition, ranging from Jobbik to socialists, is running a united campaign against Orbán in the 2021 elections. But they're still very likely to lose — because the game is rigged. Gerrymandering, an unfair media environment, and government-structured rules are hard to beat.
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If they win, which in my view is still very unlikely, it's not because Orbán is a democrat — it's because he's a less effective autocrat than it seemed.
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Have some observers overstepped, comparing Hungary to a totalitarian state? Of course. But hyperbolic criticism of the Hungarian political system from some corners doesn't invalidate the widely shared, accurate ones.
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In this case, the simple interpretation — Orbán is an autocrat and the American right's embrace of him is disturbing given the GOP's increasing use of similar authoritarian tools at home — is also the clearly correct one.
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Okay, back to vacation! Friends here in Toronto, feel free to hit me up.
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Wait. Your in Toronto????
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Replying to @HeerJeet
I was, just left yesterday. Still in southern Ontario for a bit, may come back
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