but is he a democrat or has he subverted democracy and undermined the cause of freedom notjust in hungary, but across the eu? well, my guest, zsuzsanna szelenyi, was his ally in the early days of the fidesz party. now she is an arch critic. but has orban found a politicalformula illiberal democracy for which his opponents have no answer? zsuzsanna szelenyi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for inviting me. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. when you look at your home country, hungary, today, in terms of its politics, its political culture, what do you see? well, hungary is in trouble. this is what i see first. it is diverting for a track where we entered 30 years ago, the western way of life. the generation of politicians which are characterised by fidesz, viktor orban s party, where i started my political career 32 years ago, we thought we are the party of the west. actually, orban, even 15 years ago, mentioned in a speech that fidesz party is the new western gener
had simply drifted off course. sally is here next. now on bbc news, it s time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. viktor 0rban can make a strong claim to be europe s most successful leader. after four consecutive election victories, he s admired by cultural conservatives and nationalists from moscow to washington. he wins elections, yes but is he a democrat or has he subverted democracy and undermined the cause of freedom notjust in hungary, but across the eu? well, my guest, zsuzsanna szelenyi, was his ally in the early days of the fidesz party. now she is an arch critic. but has 0rban found a politicalformula illiberal democracy for which his opponents have no answer? zsuzsanna szelenyi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for inviting me. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. when you look at your home country, hungary, today, in terms of its politics, its political culture, what do you see? well, hungary is in trouble. this is what i see first. it
of freedom notjust in hungary, but across the eu? well, my guest, zsuzsanna szelenyi, was his ally in the early days of the fidesz party. now she is an arch critic. but has orban found a politicalformula illiberal democracy for which his opponents have no answer? zsuzsanna szelenyi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for inviting me. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. when you look at your home country, hungary, today, in terms of its politics, its political culture, what do you see? well, hungary is in trouble. this is what i see first. it is diverting for a track where we entered 30 years ago, the western way of life. the generation of politicians which are characterised by fidesz, viktor orban s party, where i started my political career 32 years ago, we thought we are the party of the west. actually, orban, even 15 years ago, mentioned in a speech that fidesz party is the new western generation, and what we see today is everything but that. so that, of course, mak
from mr reznikov who hasn t been personally implicated in the procurement scandal involving the purchase of rations at inflated prices. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. viktor orban can make a strong claim to be europe s most successful leader. after four consecutive election victories, he s admired by cultural conservatives and nationalists from moscow to washington. he wins elections, yes but is he a democrat or has he subverted democracy and undermined the cause of freedom notjust in hungary, but across the eu? well, my guest, zsuzsanna szelenyi, was his ally in the early days of the fidesz party. now she is an arch critic. but has orban found a politicalformula illiberal democracy for which his opponents have no answer? zsuzsanna szelenyi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for inviting me. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. when you look at your home country, hungary, today, in terms of its politics, its political culture, wha
yes, they do have. and of course, the government also has a fascinating tool of targeting media. so they really have a same message to share with different sources and channels. but let me tell you something else, because what you raised, it s a very important issue. so there are a lot of abuses and corruption allegations. the thing is that there are never any follow up because the state institutions, like the public prosecutor who should stand up in such a case when it gets some information about abuse of finances, it s not doing its work. because every state institution is actually nominated by viktor 0rban, and these are very loyal people for him. so there is no such thing as an independentjudiciary? is that your contention? well, the president, the chief prosecutor, the constitution court members, the competition office, the media authorities is all nominated by viktor 0rban. and these institutions are there formally, but they actually do not work.