Jeopardizing democracy in Hungary

"Last week, I wrote about the result of "elections" in Belarus: Having failed to achieve a majority, President Alexander Lukashenko beat up the other candidates, arrested journalists and falsified poll results to take power. Belarus's transition from communism to democracy has not merely failed: It has never taken place at all.

This week, I'm writing about the result of elections in Hungary, a country different from Belarus in almost every way. Hungary is a fully paid member of NATO and the European Union, a country with functioning political parties and a 20-year history of free elections. Hungary's transition from communism to democracy has been an unmitigated success.

Yet in the past few months, Hungary has provided Europe with another example of how fragile democracy can be - even in a place where it works. If Belarus is cursed with a leader who is not popular enough to stay in power without violence, Hungary is now cursed with a leader who is too popular - or has too large a majority - and who can change his country's laws and constitution to keep himself in power without any violence." La suite sur washingtonpost.com

Voir aussi le compte-rendu de cet article sur hvg.hu en langue hongroise