Orban paired his authoritarian approach to governance with an ideology that has been steadily shifting toward the far right over the past decade. The government adopted a populist and nativist rhetoric that targets various external and internal groups – including critics of the government as well as various minorities and vulnerable groups – as

The effective super-majority commanded by Fidesz allowed Orban to put the legislative branch in the uncontested service of the executive, pass and amend any legislation, and even rewrite the constitutional rules of the democratic game. In April 2011, after only a year in power, the governing majority adopted the so-called Fundamental Law, Hungary�

After a period of domestic political and economic crisis in Hungary in the late 2000s, Fidesz won Hungary’s 2010 parliamentary election with 52.7 per cent of the popular vote. That slim majority nonetheless translated into two-thirds of the seats in the national assembly for the governing coalition. The Christian Democrats have served continuousl