Hungarian Leader Takes Right-wing Defiance to Brussels

LONDON â€" Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, missed Friday’s celebrations of his country’s annual Revolution Day.

He was at a summit in Brussels, facing the censure of his European partners over constitutional changes that critics say limit freedoms and aim to entrench the power of his ruling conservative Fidesz party.

The symbolism of the timing was not lost on Hungarian nationalists.

Marking the 165th anniversary of the nation’s uprising against foreign Habsburg rule, the right-wing Magyar Hirlap said the Orban government’s policy of opposing “European diktats” highlighted the contemporary relevance of “the unity of the nation in its fight for independence.”

Mr. Orban’s government is accused of testing accepted norms within the European Union with series of constitutional amendments that critics, including European officials and human rights groups, fear could undermine the judiciary, silence criticism and threaten the checks and balances of democratic government.

The latest measures, adopted by Fidesz lawmakers and their allies on Monday, have also been condemned for discriminating against a range of groups, including the homeless, students, religious minorities and single and same-sex parents.

My colleague Dan Bilefsky, reporting from Budapest, wrote on Monday:

The passing of the amendment comes amid growing concerns that the center-right government of Mr. Orban, which has a two-thirds majority in Parliament and came to power in 2010, is trying to tighten its grip, including in the judiciary, the media, the central bank, education and ! even cultural life.

In a guest post on the Opinion pages on Tuesday, Kim Lane Scheppele of Princeton University, examined the implications of the amendment and concluded:

By now it should be clear that Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party recognize no limitations in their quest for power.

Mr. Orban is not without his defenders outside Hungary, particularly among nationalists who are skeptical about what they see as the overweening power of the European Union.

In July 2011, Nigel Farage, leader of the Euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party, told Mr. Orban “jolly well done” at the close of Hungary’s six-month presidency of the E.U.

“You have shown you are not willing to be bullied by these E.U. nationalists,”Mr. Farage said. “When you say, ‘Before we were dictated to by Moscow, and now it is Brussels and you say you are going to stand up to it, you actually mean it.”

More recently, Olivier Bault, writing last month on France’s conservative Nouvelles de France Web site, praised Mr. Orban for openly defending Christian values, including the definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

As European leaders prepared for a two-day economic summit in Brussels, Martin Schultz, president of the European Parliament, urged them to consider what measures to take on Hungary.

“The European Union is a community of values,” the German Social Democrat said. “We cannot remain silent if a ! member st! ate rides roughshod over them.”

A defiant Mr. Orban told reporters in Brussels there was nothing undemocratic about the constitutional changes.

“Who is able to present even one single point of evidence, facts, may I say, which could be the basis for any argument that what we are doing is against democracy” he said at a news conference on Thursday.

Mr. Orban acknowledged to fellow Hungarians that he would be missing the March 15 celebrations. But, with Hungary under attack, it was better for him to be in Brussels rather than Budapest on Revolution Day.