The 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election marked a significant turning point in the country's relationship with the European Union. The victory of Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party signaled a potential departure from the governance model that had characterized Hungary's political landscape for over a decade. Observers have suggested that the new administration's stated commitment to strengthening democratic institutions, enhancing judicial independence, and addressing corrupti

"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.”

What is driving populism? Why has the populist vote in Europe ballooned from roughly ten percent at the turn of the millennium to one in three lst year? https://euobserver.com/66623/economic-hardship-drives-the-populist-vote/

"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."

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.