A Hungarian judge to BBC: there is a general climate of fear

What happened to Hungary? – asks Allan Little, BBC’s special correspondent in the start of his report from Budapest. “A new kind of European statehood is being built – it is democratic, but not as we know it.” – he adds. Our summary on the report.

BBC: Illiberal democracy in the heart of Europe

“There has been for many years now an ongoing campaign against independent civil society organisations in Hungary” – said Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Helsinki Committee. Furthermore, the government claims that they represent the people and

they go against the people’s enemies.

However, those can be free press, courts or even a university – added Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector of government-attacked Central European University.

Referring to the latest anti-government protests Little says that in the cities the young, the educated, the professional middle classes accuse the government of chaining the judiciary, of bringing the media under governmental control, of clamping down on any form of organized dissent. According to Little, the protesters see this process as a

betrayal of the democratic values Hungary embraced in 1989.

In fact, the reporter talked to a former Pan-European picnic organiser still loyal to Viktor Orbán. “For us national identity is very important. We want to preserve our culture.” – said László Nagy. He added that without strong nations the European Union will fall apart.

Parliamentary campaign on migration

Little talked to Gergely Gulyas, leader of government party Fidesz’s parliamentary group who highlighted that they would like to preserve the Hungarian cultural heritage. Besides, every country has to respect Hungary’s anti-migration standpoint. Moreover,

they only want to stop those NGOs that support illegal migration

-Gulyás added. However, he could not mention an example when Little asked how an NGO exactly can support it.