All articles tagged with #illiberal democracy
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, known for his strongman tactics and influence abroad, faces growing challenges at home from opposition figures and declining public support, as his traditional playbook of nationalism and anti-liberal rhetoric begins to falter ahead of the 2026 elections, amid economic stagnation and social unrest.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been reelected in a runoff that experts say is the latest trend in the rise of illiberal democracies. The Kurdish heartland of Diyarbakir has been there before, but now it has spread from the periphery to the centre, and probably beyond Turkey’s borders. Turkey’s Kurds, who constitute an estimated 18% of the country’s population, went to the polls in the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections with their most electable leader, Selahattin Demirtas, in prison. Despite a judgment by the European Court of Human Rights ordering his release, Demirtas has remained in jail for the past seven years.