Six weeks ago, Hungary's election campaign looked and sounded very different.
The stakes were already high. Viktor Orban, the longest-serving national leader in the European Union, was seeking to extend his authoritarian premiership deep into its second decade. His rival, leading a united front of opposition parties, bluntly denounced Orban's crusade against independent institutions and the rule of law.But the political focus was resolutely domestic.
His Fidesz party was suspended from the European Parliament's main center-right bloc in 2019, and Hungary -- along with Poland -- recently lost a legal battle over the EU's effort to block funding to the countries, in response to their democratic backsliding. Hungary passed a law in 2017 that imposes restrictions on nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding.
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