How to dismantle democracy: Lessons aspiring autocrats may take from Hungary's Orban

By Rob Schmitz

Published April 21, 2025 at 5:32 PM EDT

Many Hungarians are worried about Prime Minister Victor Orban's concentration of power and moves to ban protests.

Rob Schmitz

Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.

See stories by Rob Schmitz

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