Gabor Scheiring, PhD

"Gábor Scheiring, a former member of the Hungarian parliament, wrote in a new essay for Politico Magazine that Orbán “consolidated media control through centralized propaganda, market pressure and loyal billionaires.” In the US, he wrote, “liberal-minded billionaires should not sit idly by as they did in Hungary, watching the right take over the media.”

"Over the past decade, Hungary has become a classic case in the debate over illiberal democracy- even more recently with the rise of figures such as Matteo Salvini, Donald Trump, or Jair Bolsonaro on the international political scene. Around this theme was born this dialogue with Gábor Scheiring, former opposition MP in Hungary, sociologist (Ph.D., Cambridge) and researcher at Bocconi University."

"A compromise works if you want to work within the same values," says Scheiring, who is a political economist at the Italian University of Bocconi and who in the past served as an opposition politician in the Hungarian parliament. "But Orbán changed the game. And it has taken a long time for European politicians to get through

Prime Ministers Morawiecki and Orbán close ranks on their respective countries' veto of Community funds, but show possible avenues of exit to unlock the money. "The government's position does not reflect the whole of Hungary," analyst Gabor Scheiring says by phone. He warns: "In the short term, Orbán may not need an injection of money like Spain or Italy, because the Hungarian economy is in better health, but in the long run the picture can be complicated."

Opposition MPs chained themselves to parliament barrier. Ruling Fidesz party passes laws on elections and economy. IMF/EU talks in limbo: new deal key to market confidence.

The decimation of indigenous industry in central and eastern Europe has created a low-wage hinterland on the fringes of the highly developed core, writes Carl Rowlands. If the societies of central-eastern Europe are indeed in transition, it is very unclear what the destination will be.

This year sees elections in many countries in central Europe. The results may not change all that much. (An article that clearly misunderstood Hungarian politics.)