It has been over a decade since those ‘infamous’ words were spoken by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary at the Tusványos Festival in 2014. But still, many politicians, and especially members of the mainstream press, in Western Europe do not seem to be able to cope with this phrase—‘illiberal democracy’.
Believe it or not, even in 2025, hundreds of articles on the internet by big-name outlets have made mentions of PM Orbán’s signature term, many of which were full pieces dedicated to it. With President Trump back in the White House in the US, an old favourite has come back in fashion with Western journalists: outlining how President Trump would use Orbán’s ways to build an ‘authoritarian, illiberal democracy’ out of the United States.
There is yet to be a person to come forth and explain why that term should be so repulsive to the people of Europe or the United States. After all, if we take it at face value, it implies that a society is still democratic, its people are still free to take part in the democratic process, but its values are not based on the 21st-century liberal ideals. Such a concept is only self-evidently objectionable to those who clearly prioritize the ‘liberal’ part of ‘liberal democracy’ that they are so eager to uphold.
This is what explains how one can be in favour of police units in Germany barging into the homes of citizens for social media posts while also claiming to cherish democratic values at the same time—a state of mind that is basically the norm in the editorial rooms of major Western European outlets. One German citizen was criminally investigated for simply calling Ricarda Lang, MP for the left-wing progressive Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party, ‘fat’.
The concept of illiberal democracy is only self-evidently objectionable to those who clearly prioritize the “liberal” part of “liberal democracy” that they are so eager to uphold.
Here in Hungary, no person has to fear even having their social media account suspended, let alone being criminally investigated, for posting insults targeted towards politicians—not even the ‘great authoritarian of Europe’, Prime Minister Orbán.
‘The concept of illiberal democracy is only self-evidently objectionable to those who clearly prioritize the “liberal” part of “liberal democracy” that they are so eager to uphold’
Similarly, those who fear for media freedom in Hungary should try turning on the nightly news on RTL, one of the two major commercial television stations in the country. Their handsomely paid news team are working hard to put together a ‘lowlights’ reel of the Orbán administration each day. Most Western European countries could really benefit from that level of diversity—meaning diversity of thought, not ethnic diversity this time—in their media landscape, giving that level of representation to opposition ideas.
Here’s another little thought experiment: imagine if the annulment of a national election result that took place in Romania in 2024 had happened in Hungary.
The bold move was endorsed by such high figures as EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and then-US President Joe Biden at the time. It threw out the result of the first round of the presidential election in Romania, won by right-wing populist and Eurosceptic Călin Georgescu, by the country’s Constitutional Court. The justification was Russian meddling in social media ahead of the election.
Even at first glance, content on TikTok really should not justify completely doing away with a national election result. Upon a little further examination, it would have been far more convincing if local authorities had come down hard on Russian-paid social media content BEFORE the actual votes were cast. Once people had come to the polls and submitted their ballots, perhaps—in the name of democracy, liberal or not—the results should have stood. However, that was not something the great people leading our Union in Europe considered much.
To get back on point, it is not hard to imagine what kind of media coverage it would have gotten had the highest court in Hungary made such a decision, for example, citing meddling from Brussels or a Democrat administration in the United States in the country’s national election. The Western media’s favourite terms, ‘authoritarian’, ‘totalitarian’, and ‘right-wing fascist’, would have been used like machine gun fire at Omaha Beach.
At least then, they would have had a point.
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