The EU is tolerating—and enabling—authoritarian kleptocracy in Hungary

IT IS a miserable day for a political stunt. Rain drips ceaselessly from the stands of the cathedral-like stadium in Felcsut, the home village of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s football-mad prime minister. Bescarved fans huddle for warmth as they queue to watch their team, Puskas Academy, take on a local rival. Across the street Laszlo Szilagyi, an election candidate for Dialogue, an opposition party, and a few colleagues have gathered outside Mr Orban’s modest cottage. Sausages bearing the names of national oligarchs are draped over the garden fence, in an apparent nod to an old Hungarian aphorism that mocks the wealthy.

For the likes of Mr Szilagyi, Felcsut is emblematic of everything that has gone wrong under Mr Orban. The stadium, completed in 2014, cost a fortune; a nearby tourist train, reopened in 2016 with European Union funding, runs half-empty most of the time. Kleptocratic elites bleed public services while Fidesz, the ruling party, chips away at Hungary’s democracy.

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