Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is attacking any independent voices that check his power with increasing ferocity. Independent media, non-governmental organizations and political opponents are all under fire.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's annual State of the Nation speech was peppered with harsh attacks against critics, and numerous unveiled threatsImage: Zoltan Mathe/MTI/AP Photo/picture alliance
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Listening to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's sharp turn in rhetoric in recent days and weeks, one could gain the impression that he is shedding the vestiges of democratic forbearance. Ever since US President Donald Trump — Orban's "comrade in arms," as he put it — returned to the White House in January, the Hungarian head of government has been attacking critics with unknown harshness, and issuing unprecedented threats.
Last week, Orban held his annual State of the Nation address, in which he takes stock of the past year and announces plans for the upcoming one. These speeches are usually dotted with several pointed remarks that elicit the occasional laugh from the audience.
This year, his address contained such rhetorical bombshells as referring to the neighboring state of Ukraine as a "territory" that would serve as a "buffer zone" between Russia and NATO member states.
3 years of war in Ukraine — in pictures
It has been three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Thousands are dead, millions have been made homeless, there's widespread destruction — and now Ukrainians fear how this war might end.
Satellite pictures taken in late 2021 showed how Russian military and heavy weapons were gathering near the Russian town of Yelnya, close to the border of Belarus. On November 11, 2021, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine. That did not stop Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
Image: Maxar Technologies/AFP
Rocket attacks throughout Ukraine
The military operations on February 24 saw rockets hit a number of Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv. In Kyiv, a military building was set alight during the attacks. The war — which Moscow insisted on calling a "special operation" — had begun.
Image: Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo/picture alliance
'Strategic' violence in Bucha
Within weeks, Ukrainians were able to expel the Russians from cities in the north. After the Russians were pushed out, war crimes came to light. Images of tortured and murdered civilians in the Bucha district, near Kyiv, went around the world. Over 1,100 civilians in the Bucha district were killed, authorities reported. Investigators said the violence was methodical and strategic.
Image: Serhii Nuzhnenko/AP Photo/picture alliance
Life in ruins
According to Moscow, the "special operation" in Ukraine was only supposed to last three days. Three years later, the war continues. The latest reports from think tank the Institute for the Study of War indicate that Russia now controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory, mostly in the east. This picture was taken in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, in May 2023.
Image: Sofiia Gatilova/REUTERS
Russian vote 'flagrant violation of international law'
In September 2022, Russia unilaterally annexed four Ukrainian areas — Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — which add up to around about 90,000 square kilometers. A year later, the four areas were included in Russian regional elections. In a vote that was described as "a flagrant violation of international law," Putin's United Russia party won in each area with more than 70% of the vote.
Image: Alexander Ermochenko/REUTERS
Millions displaced, live as refugees
The war in Ukraine forced millions of people to flee, sparking a wave of migration unseen in Europe since World War II. According to the United Nations, 3.7 million people in Ukraine have been displaced by the fighting. Over 6 million left Ukraine altogether and moved westward into Europe, mostly to Poland and Germany.
Image: Filip Singer/EPA-EFE
Mariupol, city of Ukrainian resistance
Russia's 2022 siege of the southern city of Mariupol lasted 82 days. The city was heavily bombed and the last Ukrainian fighters barricaded themselves in a steel factory. After Russia bombed a hospital, a photo of a pregnant woman being evacuated went around the world. The picture was taken by Ukrainian journalists who later won an Academy Award for their documentary, "20 Days in Mariupol."
Image: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/dpa/picture alliance
Russia's only connection to Crimea
At 19 kilometers (about 12 miles), the Crimea bridge is the longest in Europe and connects southern Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. In October 2022, the bridge was damaged by a bomb set by Ukrainians and became only partially usable. In July 2023, the bridge was damaged once again by Ukrainian forces.
Image: Alyona Popova/TASS/dpa/picture alliance
Environmental disaster
On June 6, 2023, an explosion damaged the Kakhovka Dam and emptied its reservoir into the Dnipro River. Ukraine and Russia both blamed the other for the disaster but, at the time, Russia controlled the dam. The resulting flood triggered an environmental disaster, wrecked thousands of homes and also likely killed hundreds — journalists later found that Russia had deliberately undercounted the dead.
Image: Libkos/AP Photo/picture alliance
Energy infrastructure targeted
Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Researchers say that a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 76% of thermal power plants had been destroyed. By September 2024, that figure had risen to 95%. Ukraine's grid has been severely weakened, which has resulted in power outages and a worsening humanitarian situation, especially in winter.
Image: Sergey Bobok/AFP
Ukraine attacks Russian territory
In August 2024, Ukraine's armed forces launched an offensive on Russian territory for the first time. Meeting little resistance at the borders, they were initially able to control around 1,400 square kilometers (about 540 square miles) in the Kursk region. But they have since lost two-thirds of the occupied territory.
Image: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
Drone wars
Both Russia and Ukraine use drones for reconnaissance and surveillance, and also for targeted attacks. Experts say there are around 100 different types of drones are in use in Ukraine, from toy-sized machines to those the size of small planes. In March 2024, Ukraine said it was capable of manufacturing up to 4 million drones annually.
Three years of war have left lasting scars on Ukraine. In the east and south, many towns and villages, devastated by Russian attacks, are today more like ghost towns. The town of Bohorodychne, in the Donetsk region, came under heavy attack by Russia in June 2022 and is now almost empty.
Not all of Ukraine is on the front line. Far from the fighting, life goes on. Shops, cafes and restaurants are open, and locals have prepared for power outages by setting up generators.
Image: YURIY DYACHYSHYN/AFP
US support for Ukraine in doubt
US President Donald Trump has talked about how he wants to end the war in Ukraine in "24 hours." Trump has not yet done this. However, his apparent closeness with Russia, his desire to pressure Ukraine into giving up its mineral wealth to the US and his recent war of words with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are causing concern in Ukraine and among its allies.
Image: Ukraine Presidency/ZUMA/picture alliance
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He also hinted at banning the LGBTQ+ parade Budapest Pride and amending the constitution to say that a person is either a man or a woman — effectively ending any trans or queer representation.
This year's State of the Nation could mark a similar turning point as Orban's infamous 2014 address in Romania's Baile Tusnad, when he promised to transform Hungary into an "illiberal state." In short, Orban's speech gave the impression that he was planning harsh repressions against critics, after finding that the state until now had been too tolerant toward any kind of detractor.
Shortly after, the independent Hungarian news portal Telex, otherwise moderate in its choice of words, ran the headline, "Orban unleashed," and the weekly magazine HVG spoke of Orban's "unprecedented radicalization."
Meanwhile, Orban has lashed out at his opponents, mostly journalists and nongovernmental organizations, calling them "traitors," and "pseudo-civil" agents and accusing them of corruption and abuse of power.
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Entry bans and denaturalization?
It's unclear which concrete steps Orban's administration would take against critics. In his address, the prime minister announced that, "we must urgently create the constitutional and legal conditions, so that we do not have to sit idly by as pseudo-civil public organizations serve foreign interests and organize political actions before our eyes."
The country's leading daily MagyarNemzet, widely considered Orban's unofficial mouthpiece, reported recently that Hungary's government was planning to expel critics from the country. Since then, the country has been speculating over whether Orban's critics might be exiled from Hungary, or banned from entering.
Orban critics fight to be heard
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Orban has only added fuel to the fire by announcing he would pass a Hungarian version of the Magnitsky Act — a US law designed to impose sanctions, such as travel bans, on individuals suspected to be involved in human rights abuses.
Tackling supposed foreign interference
Other potential measures could include expanding the mandate of the so-called Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO), which was established in 2024 to investigate supposed violations of Hungarian sovereignty by "foreign interference."
The office does not have executive power, but it does serve well as a propaganda instrument, for example, by branding investigative journalists uncovering corruption affairs as "foreign agents."
In a similar vein, Orban's administration has also taken aim at the US development agency USAID, releasing statements accusing the organization of attempting to "topple" governments like his.
Why now?
One possible reason for Orban's recent sweeping attacks against any checks on his power could be a new documentary released on YouTube. Just weeks ago, a team of investigative journalists that call themselves Direkt36 released the film The Dynasty, documenting the stellar rise of Orban's family members and a close circle of the richest Hungarian elites.
The film suggests that none of this would have been possible without Orban intervening in judicial and governmental systems. Within three weeks, the documentary reached over 3 million views.
Evidently, there is growing discontent in Hungary over what is perceived as Orban's system of corruption, as can be seen in the increasing support for the newly founded Respect and Freedom (TISZA) party. In polls, the party, which is led by political renegade Peter Magyar, routinely ranks equally as high, if not higher, than Orban's Fidesz party.
Discontent has even gone so far that, last Saturday, for the first time in the country's young history, judges took to the streets of Budapest to demonstrate for a free judiciary.
'Cleansing wind'
Should power change hands in Hungary, Orban, his family, and many others who have profited from the regime might face court cases and even prison sentences for corruption charges, among other things. To prevent this, election laws, already bent in favor of the ruling Fidesz party, are likely to be updated.
Already, the climate in Hungary is historically repressive, with many citizens afraid to publicly voice their opinions. But unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungary's prime minister apparently does not yet see the need to jail political opponents. Perhaps, that's because he sees an ally in the White House, whose own attacks against federal agencies Orban has praised as a "cleansing wind."
