{"id":19497,"date":"2026-04-23T10:38:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.progressives-zentrum.org\/en\/?p=19497"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:44:37","slug":"meanders-of-democratic-renewal-what-can-hungary-learn-from-the-polish-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.progressives-zentrum.org\/en\/meanders-of-democratic-renewal-what-can-hungary-learn-from-the-polish-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Meanders of Democratic Renewal. What Can Hungary Learn from the Polish Experience?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Hungary\u2019s parliamentary election brought a spectacular victory for the opposition. Viktor Orb\u00e1n has lost power after 16 years of continued rule. His challenger, P\u00e9ter Magyar, managed to build a movement that took advantage of a system meticulously rigged to prevent the incumbent from ever losing power. It is a victory against a captured state that systematically used the Hungarian public assets for private profit and unfair partisan advantage. Yet, the electoral victory will not automatically restore democratic standards and a rule-based order. In her op-ed, Maria Skora argues that the recent experience of Poland, which has been struggling to overcome the consequences of its own autocratic episode, might help Hungary to navigate the risks of re-democratization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-from-democratic-back-to-front-sliding\">From Democratic Back-to-Front-sliding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For eight years, during two consecutive terms, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party remodeled the state to seize political power. After taking office in 2015, the PiS government gained&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/notesfrompoland.com\/2025\/03\/17\/polands-ongoing-rule-of-law-crisis-explained\/\">control over the Constitutional Tribunal, followed by the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary<\/a>.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/polish-opposition-loses-funding-over-misuse-state-cash-2024-08-29\/\">Public resources were used for political campaigns<\/a>, and high-ranking positions in state-owned enterprises served&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/magazyn.wp.pl\/klub-milionerow-2023-prawie-pol-miliarda-zlotych-dla-90-ludzi-dobrej-zmiany-6907107464514528a\">as rewards for party soldiers<\/a>.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ipi.media\/new-report-polands-public-media-serve-as-propaganda-tool-2\/\">Public broadcasters were captured<\/a>&nbsp;while political<a href=\"https:\/\/www.article19.org\/resources\/poland-media-freedom-at-a-crossroads\/\">&nbsp;pressure was exercised on commercial ones<\/a>, who dared to criticize the government. A national-conservative grip was tangible in culture, education, and research. Funds were allocated to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctvw04jx2\">a new civil society<\/a>&nbsp;that is ideologically aligned with the worldview promoted by PiS-led authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/revdem.ceu.edu\/2026\/04\/21\/meanders-of-democratic-renewal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Full Article<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article was originally published in RevDem on 22 April 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maria Sk\u00f3ra on the future of Hungary after the election: Reflections on Poland\u2019s meandering path to democratic front-sliding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":19498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,216],"tags":[422,353],"class_list":["post-19497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-debate","category-wir-in-den-medien","tag-hungary","tag-polen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meanders of Democratic Renewal. 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