European Student Think Tank

Most people might argue over the ambigu­ous polit­ical situ­ation in Tur­key where one has wit­nessed the rise of both author­it­ari­an­ism and social and polit­ical reforms since 2002, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power. It was the first time in the polit­ical his­tory of Tur­key that a party has man­aged to increase its seats in the par­lia­ment three times in a row. It seems very plaus­ible that there exists a change towards author­it­ari­an­ism, but this –interestingly- did not give rise to strong oppos­i­tions demand­ing more say in politics.

The Hun­garian gov­ern­ment of Viktor Orbán has been repeatedly cri­ti­cised for tak­ing the coun­try down the road of author­it­ari­an­ism. After its grab on the Hun­garian National Bank, the EU and the IMF have finally decided to pre­vent a fur­ther deteri­or­a­tion of demo­cratic stand­ards. The decision comes late, but is right, because Hun­gary is start­ing to resemble Rus­sia more than any coun­try in the EU.