Viktor Orban Propaganda State Shows Cracks as Rival Surges

Vik­tor Orbán’s pro­pa­gan­da machine, which secured pow­er by con­trol­ling the news media and destroy­ing polit­i­cal oppo­nents for 15 years, is fail­ing to crush his most potent cur­rent rival, Peter Mag­yar, whose oppo­si­tion move­ment leads opin­ion polls despite sus­tained media attacks. On 12 Octo­ber 2025, The New York Times report­ed that the Hun­gar­i­an leader is strug­gling for the first time to land a knock­out blow on his ene­mies, with Mag­yar being sav­aged by Fidesz-con­trolled media as an abu­sive hus­band, trai­tor, crook, and sex pest with­out effect. The arti­cle begins:

Viktor Orbán’s Hungary: Central Hub of the Global National Conservative Alliance

Vik­tor Orbán has emerged as the cen­tral fig­ure in a transna­tion­al net­work of nation­al­ist and far-right forces reshap­ing Euro­pean pol­i­tics. Through the Patri­ots for Europe par­lia­men­tary alliance and the broad­er Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Alliance, the Hun­gar­i­an prime min­is­ter has forged con­nec­tions span­ning from Marine Le Pen’s Nation­al Ral­ly to Geert Wilders’ Par­ty for Free­dom. These alliances cham­pi­on a “Europe of nations” ground­ed in sov­er­eign­ty and Chris­t­ian her­itage while denounc­ing Brus­sels as an unde­mo­c­ra­t­ic empire seek­ing to strip mem­ber states of their identity.

Hun­gary’s trans­for­ma­tion under Orbán has become a ref­er­ence point for Amer­i­can con­ser­v­a­tives, with Steve Ban­non and Her­itage Foun­da­tion lead­ers prais­ing the coun­try as “an inspi­ra­tion” despite its descent into sys­temic cor­rup­tion and eco­nom­ic stag­na­tion. The Atlantic reveals that Hun­gary has become one of the poor­est EU nations as Orbán’s gov­ern­ment enriched a small cir­cle of oli­garchs while indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion and health­care declined. This extends to sys­tem­at­ic media cap­ture through reg­u­la­to­ry weaponiza­tion and finan­cial pres­sure against crit­ics, a play­book that Pres­i­dent Trump has adopt­ed against Amer­i­can outlets.

The Con­ser­v­a­tive Polit­i­cal Action Con­fer­ence has become a cru­cial plat­form for solid­i­fy­ing these transna­tion­al bonds. Budapest host­ed CPAC events fea­tur­ing speech­es from Orbán along­side Tuck­er Carl­son and Euro­pean far-right lead­ers who expressed admi­ra­tion for Hun­gary’s “illib­er­al democ­ra­cy.” Orbán used these gath­er­ings to pro­claim that Hun­gary had been “com­plete­ly healed” of pro­gres­sive dom­i­nance and urged atten­dees to “take back the insti­tu­tions in Wash­ing­ton and Brus­sels.” The con­fer­ences drew con­tro­ver­sial fig­ures while Orbán framed lib­er­al­ism as a “virus” threat­en­ing tra­di­tion­al society.

Accord­ing to Al Jazeera, Orbán has devel­oped a near cult-like fol­low­ing on the Euro­pean far right through con­sis­tent elec­toral vic­to­ries and sub­stan­tial resource invest­ment in build­ing pan-Euro­pean coali­tions, though he remains con­strained by Hun­gary’s small size and increas­ing iso­la­tion from main­stream Euro­pean politics.

This ide­o­log­i­cal net­work oper­ates through mul­ti­ple chan­nels beyond for­mal polit­i­cal gath­er­ings. Hun­gary funds think tanks like the Math­ias Corv­i­nus Col­legium, which received over €6 mil­lion to influ­ence Euro­pean pol­i­cy­mak­ers and pro­vides a plat­form for Amer­i­can aca­d­e­mics prais­ing author­i­tar­i­an mod­els. Balkan Insight’s inves­ti­ga­tion reveals that this influ­ence extends to Hun­gar­i­an dias­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties, where eth­nic Hun­gar­i­ans in Roma­ni­a’s Tran­syl­va­nia have become a pil­lar of Orbán’s polit­i­cal pow­er with over­whelm­ing Fidesz support.

The alliance has gained momen­tum through shared oppo­si­tion to immi­gra­tion, LGBTQ+ rights, and supra­na­tion­al gov­er­nance. CBS News reports that at CPAC Budapest 2025, Trump praised Orbán in a video mes­sage, call­ing him “a great man and a very spe­cial per­son” while Orbán declared that a “Trump tsuna­mi swept through the entire world.” Beyond Europe, the alliance seeks to estab­lish ide­o­log­i­cal beach­heads glob­al­ly, with Putin’s Rus­sia ini­tial­ly attempt­ing to lead the move­ment before the Ukraine war dimin­ished Moscow’s role and allowed Hun­gary to posi­tion itself as the pri­ma­ry bridge between Amer­i­can and Euro­pean conservatives.

Exter­nal References:
— To sur­vive, Orban is plot­ting a far-right takeover of Brus­sels — Al Jazeera
— CPAC comes to Europe as alliance between Trump White House and inter­na­tion­al right grows — CBS News
— Hun­gar­i­an PM Extends Influ­ence Net­work in Europe While Clamp­ing Down at Home — Balkan Insight