Why Is CPAC Traveling to Illiberal Hungary?
American conservatives announced plans to rally behind Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orbán through the high-profile network Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a sign that their movement has increasingly embraced a hard-right, authoritarian worldview following Donald Trump’s presidency.
The Center for Fundamental Rights (AK, by its Hungarian abbreviation), a Hungarian government-funded organization that set up the event, first announced a potential CPAC gathering in Budapest in February 2020. AK delayed the event to late March 2021, and did so again after Russia invaded Ukraine, scheduling it for May 18-20. Should U.S. conservatives follow through on making the trip following Orbán's resounding victory in April elections, democracy advocates will be paying close attention.
Critics of Orbán note his antisemitism, racism and efforts to derail Hungary’s democracy by using state funds to aid his re-election. He has packed courts and choked out critical media by nationalizing journalistic outlets. Pro-government businessmen control much of Hungary’s private media, including Index, which accounted for about half of Hungary’s total page views of independent media until 2020, when Orbán-sympathetic businessman Miklós Vaszily purchased a controlling stake. Hungarian analysts warn the reality in their country does not line up with views traditionally associated with U.S. conservatism, including a defense of the free market.
Still, prominent figures with big audiences in the conservative movement, including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, have either ignored or embraced these scandals and depicted him as a model leader. CPAC’s choice to collaborate with Hungary further cements the relationship between the America’s right wing and the authoritarian ruler.
Bulcsú Hunyadi, head of the Radicalisation and Extremism Programme at Hungarian think tank Political Capital, told Hatewatch in an email that Orbán’s mainstreaming of “populist radical speech” on “migration, LGBTQI and gender issues, opposition to liberal values [and] defending traditional ‘culture’” has been instrumental to his rise as a symbol of success for the international hard right.
Orbán’s rhetoric aligns with “current narratives and messages practically coincide with those of the European new right movement and the American alt-right,” the researcher continued, referring to an internet-focused rebrand of white supremacist ideology that emerged during Trump’s rise as a political figure.
more:
http://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/04/05/why-cpac-traveling-illiberal-hungary
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