Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, accused of systematically dismantling his country’s democratic institutions, sits down with President Trump on Monday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is widely accused of undermining his country’s democratic institutions, is scheduled to meet President Trump on Monday, the latest authoritarian leader to get a White House invitation.
Although Hungary is a European Union member and a NATO ally, Orban has become notorious for his attacks on the media, academia, the judiciary and other democratic institutions since he became prime minister in 2010.
“He’s really hollowed out the democratic underpinnings of Hungary and is seeking to do so across Europe,” said Sarah Margon, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch.
Partly as a result, Orban’s White House visit sparked discontent on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N. Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and 10 other House Democrats called for the White House to cancel the planned meeting.
In the Senate, senior Republicans and Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee urged Trump in a letter to express concern to Orban about Hungary’s “downward democratic trajectory.”
Trump has nurtured friendly relationships with an array of global strongmen, including Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Sisi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
But Orban, arguably the most influential nationalist-populist leader in Europe, embraces a nativist agenda that gives him special affinity with Trump.
In 2015, when Europe struggled with an influx of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, he likened migrants to rapists and terrorists, echoing Trump’s harsh rhetoric about migrants on the U. S. southern border.
Orban’s harsh depictions of Muslims, whom he calls a threat to “Christian European culture,” are part of a political agenda that he calls “illiberal democracy,” one in which elections are held but traditional liberties erode.
Orban made no secret of his wish to visit the White House after being snubbed by President Obama, who never even granted him a phone call.
