[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2919-S2920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                HUNGARY

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, this week, the Senate is poised to confirm 
the nomination of David Cornstein to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador 
to Hungary. Against that backdrop, as well as reports that Secretary of 
State Pompeo will meet with the Hungarian Foreign Minister in 
Washington at the end of this month, it is timely to consider the 
troubling situation in Hungary.
  Budapest is a fabulous city. The Parliament is regarded by many as 
one of the most beautiful legislative houses in the world. Hungarians 
are a warm and generous people, and the United States and Hungary have 
a shared history dating to the times of Lajos Kossuth, whose bust 
graces the halls of the U.S. Congress. Hungarians have come to this 
country as both immigrants and refugees, enriching our national fabric.
  The beauty of Budapest masks a growing climate of fear, however. For 
the past 8 years, Hungary's ruling Fidesz party has tried to pass 
majoritarianism off as democracy. Media pluralism has disappeared. The 
government plays favorites with religions, preferring some while 
discriminating against others, like the Hungarian Evangelical 
Fellowship. Moreover, the checks and balances that are essential for 
democracy are missing in action. To say that the ruling party now 
exercises unchecked legal power is not an exercise in hyperbole, but 
merely a concise analysis of the facts.
  Prime Minister Viktor Orban has allowed corruption to flourish, 
enriching his own friends and family. The government has recentralized, 
and more of the economy is either under state control or in the hands 
of Orban's cronies. Once Fidesz won two-thirds of the seats in 
Parliament in 2010, the party changed the election system to perpetuate 
that outcome. As Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 
OSCE, elections observers concluded, separation of state and party is 
no longer respected. For a country that suffered under a one-party 
regime, that is a deeply disturbing conclusion.
  In 2013, I chaired a Helsinki Commission hearing on the trajectory of 
democracy in Hungary. Frankly, I did not think things would get this 
bad, in part because I did not think the ruling Fidesz party would 
become more extremist than Hungary's strongest opposition party, 
Jobbik, but after 2010, with Jobbik's anti-Semitic and anti-Roma 
rhetoric serving as a Greek chorus, Fidesz leaders carved out their own 
revisionist bona fides, worked to rehabilitate fascist-era figures, and 
repeatedly awarded, elevated, and amplified one of the country's most 
extremist polemicists. They determined that they could get away with 
further escalating hate-mongering against racial and religious 
minorities with one tweak: call them Muslims and migrants. Hatred, it 
seems, is fungible.
  Not surprisingly, the politics of fear, historical revisionism, and 
national grievances have found expression in the ruling party's foreign 
policy too. The most alarming example has been Hungary's opportunistic 
approach to Ukraine following Russia's 2014 invasion, with Hungary's 
rhetoric often echoing Moscow's. Overall, the Hungarian Government's 
approach suggests that it is not interested in a dialogue about the 
Hungarian minority in

[[Page S2920]]

Ukraine, but in finding a new political enemy. The fact that this is 
music to Vladimir Putin's ears may be just a coincidence.
  In any case, Hungary's posture regarding Russia is unusual in the 
region, to say the least. As suggested in the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee Report we issued on ``Putin's Asymmetric Assault,'' Russian 
disinformation isn't just creeping in over the transom; the Hungarian 
Government has opened the door and put out a welcome mat. 
Paradoxically, however, while Prime Minister Orban may tilt his country 
to east, Hungarians themselves remain among the most pro-European Union 
of Europeans and many still vote with their feet, forming a steady 
exodus west. In fact, the outward exodus is contributing to an emerging 
labor shortage.
  It is not surprising that Hungary gets compared to Russia: the 
nongovernmental organization, NGO, Law adopted in Budapest last year 
was inspired by Russia, proposed by Jobbik, and passed by Fidesz, but 
there are still big differences between Hungary and Russia. Journalists 
are not murdered in Hungary, and no one goes to jail for his or her 
opinions. Instead, Hungary is using a fist in a velvet glove to silence 
civil society and thwart political dissent without ever leaving a mark. 
Viktor Orban has mastered nonviolent means of repression. He has used 
the renationalization of segments of the economy, the recentralization 
of state authority, and the kleptocratic control of putatively private 
business to stymie opposition and dissent. I know political analysts 
are using a lot of different terms to describe the specific system that 
has emerged in Hungary under Orban--illiberal or mafia state? Oligarchy 
or kleptocracy? One of the most apt may be ``goulash 
authoritarianism.''
  There are worrying signs that things may get worse before they get 
better. Viktor Orban now appears set to fulfill his campaign pledge to 
extract ``moral, political and legal'' retribution from those who 
opposed him. He welcomed the publication of an ``enemies list'' 
containing some 200 names--including numerous American citizens--and 
urged the close-to-Orban media to do more to root them out. This is the 
kind of smear campaign that often comes just before the gloves come off 
and the blows begin.
  Under these challenging circumstances, the United States needs to 
speak with a clear and unambiguous voice. As Senator Corker said at the 
confirmation hearing last week, ``Mr. Cornstein will have the important 
task of reminding the Government of Hungary that its future lies not in 
a return to the dark days of the past but in remaining an active member 
of the community of liberal democracies.'' Messages delivered behind 
closed doors are likely to have little effect or may even be completely 
misrepresented in public by Hungarian officials.
  The United States will always have a relationship with Hungary, but 
the question is: What kind of relationship will that be? One built on 
deeply shared values or only fleeting transactional interests? Our 
strongest alliances are with countries where human rights are respected 
and democracy is strong, and that is the kind of relationship I hope 
Mr. Cornstein will help build.

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