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The Independent
2 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
The 10 best boutique hotels in Budapest in 2025, reviewed
With its thermal baths, ruin bars and complex history, Budapest is a city that sure's to stimulate the senses. If you're something of a classic traveller, we recommend you make a beeline for the Castle District. The former Royal Palace is now home to the Hungarian Natural Gallery, but this area is also home to many of the city's other landmarks – think Fishermen's Bastion and Matthias Church – and has seen significant development over the past few years. For foodies, there are ample coffee and cake houses to keep you sated, and for partygoers, the rooftop bars scene is on point. There's plenty to see and do, regardless of whether you're here for a long time or a good time. Although the capital of Hungary continues to grow in popularity, you don't have to succumb to the crowds with boutique hotel options aplenty to retreat to. Whether it's a baroque townhouse on Castle Hill or an urban downtown sanctuary, Budapest has a range of great boutique hotels to choose from. Best boutique hotels in Budapest 2025 At a glance 1. Aria Hotel At the Aria Hotel, music weaves itself into the concept, with themed rooms inspired by classical, jazz, modern, and opera. Piano keys curving along the floor lead you into the glass-covered lobby, where you can recline with complimentary wine and cheese served from 4-6 pm and listen to live music. Guests can enjoy a symphony in the bath or relax in the atmospherically lit, blues-themed underground spa, but don't miss the High Note SkyBar for a cocktail with a dramatic panorama over the city. Address: Hercegprímás u. 5, 1051 2. Hotel Moments Budapest This 99-room boutique hotel sits on the prestigious Andrássy Avenue just moments away from St Stephen's Basilica and the Hungarian State Opera. Like many Budapest boutique hotels, it occupies a former townhouse that has been revamped to mix up the building's original features, such as the stunning fresco-clad entryway, with modern design. The gourmet buffet breakfast is served with a mouth-watering choice of baked goods, seasonal produce, cold cuts and gluten- and lactose-free options and is one of the main highlights. Address: Andrássy út 8, 1061 3. Baltazár Boutique Hotel Baltazár is an 11-room, family-owned hotel tucked away in the Castle District's gastronomic quarter, with excellent restaurants just minutes away. Each room is individually designed, mixing a bohemian melting pot of art, vintage furniture and colourful fabrics. The main highlight, however, is the food and drink. Enjoy an apéritif on the cosy leather sofas in the bar – try the gin (there's an extensive collection) or one of the many Hungarian or Central European wines. Address: Országház u. 31, 1014 4. Hotel Rum The Hotel Rum is a compact hotel with 40 rooms spread across seven floors of a narrow townhouse. Each room varies in size and proportion, sporting an industrial chic aesthetic with rough stone walls in some rooms, along with metro tiles in the bathrooms and Edison lights. The common areas and the rooms feature art from local artists, giving the hotel a quirky, trendy edge. Breakfast is served at the rooftop restaurant, SOLID, on the 7th floor, with panoramic city views. Another curiosity is that the hotel also houses SALT, a Michelin-starred restaurant on the ground floor, focusing on modern dishes inspired by Hungarian flavours and ingredients. 5. Giselle Vintage Doubles hotel Giselle Vintage Doubles is ideal for the traveller looking for something with a cosy vintage touch. This boutique hotel with 20 rooms occupies a unique setting on the top floor of a grand residential building with a stunning glass-covered courtyard. There's an elevator to the top, but you may want to take the stairs, as the ornate Art Nouveau staircase is a visual feast. The rooms are quiet with vintage touches, and some have balconies overlooking the square. Although the hotel is located in a busy area downtown, the windows are excellent at keeping the noise out. Address: Ferenciek tere 2, 1053 6. Pest-Buda Design Hotel Pest-Buda overlooks a cobbled street just minutes away from Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion on Castle Hill. The building dates back to 1696 and was the first hotel in Hungary. Although you can still spot historical details in this 11-room hotel, such as its perfectly preserved baroque roof, the decor is modern and hip, mixing rustic elements such as wooden beams with brass industrial chic lighting and retro leather furniture. Address: Fortuna u. 3, 1014 7. Brody House hotel You'll want to book months in advance to get one of the rooms at this bohemian bolthole. Brody House is a 19th-century townhouse in the heart of the Palace District. It was once an artist's collective, and much of the art on the walls came from the former artists in residence, who individually designed each room. Guests can immerse themselves in the local art scene simply by entering their room, but take time to walk up and down Brody Sandor utca – a vibrant street populated with private galleries and artists' collectives. The whole house, or sections of it, can also be booked for larger groups, and there's also a lively bar area serving food and craft cocktails. Address: Bródy Sándor u. 10, 1088 8. Hotel Gin Hotel Gin has 35 rooms spread across four floors on a quiet street around the corner from the remains of the old city wall of Pest. It's an elegant hotel with a chic modern design, muted tones, smart features like electronic do-not-disturb signs, and cleaning request buttons. Rooms are furnished with Smeg kettles and a coffee-pod machine. The en suite bathrooms are deconstructed, with the sink in the room and a partitioned module for the toilet and the shower in separate cubicles. 9. Hotel Clark Located on the Buda side of the city, with breathtaking views overlooking the iconic Chain Bridge and many other city landmarks, Hotel Clark Budapest is a modern, luxury boutique hotel with 79 rooms and suites spread across seven floors. Their Seventh Heaven Studios on the seventh floor come with a spacious private terrace. Hotel Clark also has a small wellness area with a Finnish dry sauna and a compact fitness room with Danube views. Crowning the 5-star boutique hotel is LEO Rooftop Bar, located on the 8th floor, offering spectacular views over the Chain Bridge, the Royal Castle, the Parliament and the Danube river. The other restaurant in this hotel, LEO Bistro, can be found on the ground floor, where breakfast is served and guests can enjoy the delicious offerings of the international-inspired bistro menu. 10. Monastery Boutique Hotel As the name may hint, this four-star boutique hotel occupies a part of a 300-year-old Baroque abbey, which was completely renovated in 2016. However, there is still a small, closed-off wing with a small community of Capuchin monks. There are 47 rooms spread out across two floors, with a range of rooms from standard to family size and a 45-square-metre suite. In keeping with the monastic theme, rooms are minimalist, with some of the original walls still showing. The hotel has two restaurants: UMO, which offers international dishes, and Moszkvatér Bistro, which serves Eastern European cuisine.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iron Maiden have played a surprise-stuffed first show of their 50th Anniversary tour
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Iron Maiden have played the first show of their 50th-Anniversary Run For Your Lives Tour. The band completed a 17-song set at the 12,500-capacity Papp László Sportaréna in Budapest, Hungary, and packed it with songs they haven't played in years. Maiden, with new drummer Simon Dawson behind the kit, opened with four songs from the Paul Di'Anno era in Murders In The Rue Morgue (which hasn't been played since the Eddie Rips Up the World tour 20 years ago, Wrathchild, Killers (a song the band haven't played this century) and Phantom Of The Opera. Elsewhere, there was a return to the set for the much-loved epic Rime Of The Ancient Mariner for the first time in 15 years, while other returnees included The Clairvoyant, Powerslave, 2 Minutes To Midnight and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. Full setlist below. Despite Iron Maiden urging fans to keep their phones in their pockets during the tour, fan-shot video from the first show is already online (below) Maiden return to the Sportaréna in Budapest for a second show tomorrow tonight (May 29), before travelling to the Czech Republic and a booking at Prague's Letnany Airport. Full dates below. More Run For Your Lives dates outside of Europe are expected to be announced soon, with the tour set to extend into 2026. A 50th-anniversary Maiden documentary film will come out later this year. Murders in the Rue Morgue Wrathchild KillersPhantom of the Opera The Number of the BeastThe Clairvoyant Powerslave2 Minutes to MidnightRime of the Ancient Mariner Run to the HillsSeventh Son of a Seventh Son The TrooperHallowed Be Thy NameIron Maiden EncoreAces HighFear of the DarkWasted Years May 28: Budapest Aréna, Hungary *May 31: Prague Letnany Airport, Czech Republic *Jun 01: Bratislava TIPOS Arena, Slovakia *Jun 05: Trondheim Rocks, Norway ≠Jun 07: Stavanger SR-Bank Arena, Norway *Jun 09: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark *Jun 12: Stockholm 3Arena, Sweden *Jun 13: Stockholm 3Arena, Sweden *Jun 16: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Finland *Jun 19: Dessel Graspop Metal Meeting, Belgium≠ Jun 21: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK ^Jun 22: Manchester Co-op Live, UK ^Jun 25: Dublin Malahide Castle, Ireland *^Jun 28: London Stadium, UK *^Jun 30: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK ^ Jul 03: Belfort Eurockéennes, France ≠Jul 05: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Spain **Jul 06: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal **Jul 09: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland **Jul 11: Gelsenkirchen Veltins-Arena, Germany **Jul 13: Padova Stadio Euganeo, Italy **Jul 15: Bremen Bürgerweide, Germany **Jul 17: Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium, Austria **Jul 19: Paris Paris La Défense Arena, France **Jul 20: Paris Paris La Défense Arena, France **Jul 23: Arnhem GelreDome, Netherlands **Jul 25: Frankfurt Deutsche Bank Park, Germany **Jul 26: Stuttgart Cannstatter Wasen, Germany **Jul 29: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany **Jul 30: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany **Aug 02: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, Poland ** * = Halestorm support^ = The Raven Age support** = Avatar support≠ = Festival date
Bloomberg
a day ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Hungary's Top Court Strikes Down Police Ban on LGBTQ Gathering
Hungary's top court struck down a police ban of a pro-LGBTQ gathering in Budapest, in a test of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's escalating culture war before elections next year. Police failed to adequately justify why a constitutional amendment approved in April — which Orban had said would create legal grounds for banning LGBTQ-themed events in public — applied to one planned for Sunday, the court, known as the Kuria, wrote in a ruling. It was the first time authorities had tried to use the legislation for this purpose.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Something has gone wrong in our culture when people opt for ‘fur babies' over real babies
Recent Hungarian research generated a slew of headlines about people choosing dogs over having children. Some went as far as to blame it for the decline in birth rates. Fortunately, the study is much more nuanced. Prof Enikő Kubinyi from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest suggests that the relationship between rates of pet ownership and having children is complex. Dogs don't cause lower fertility. Instead, declining fertility rates may be increasing the importance of dogs in people's lives, with pets filling the emotional space left by fewer children and more fragile family networks. Kubinyi cites an intriguing statistic. If a woman raises two children instead of five, the number of same-generation relatives (siblings and cousins) is reduced, on average, from 44 to five. READ MORE Fewer family connections lead to more fragile real-life social networks. Family relationships create what sociologists call 'closed triangle' connections – situations where all members of a group know each other directly. This builds stronger, more stable social ties. These closed triangles are much less common in friendships. Somewhat ironically, dog ownership can increase the number of closed triangles, because people out walking dogs or discussing them can develop relationships based on their mutual love of pets. The Hungarian researcher is not the first to highlight change in the number of relatives. In China, the one-child policy led to the decline not only in siblings, but in cousins, aunts and uncles. There is also a serious gender imbalance in favour of male children, the so-called emperor children. The one-child policy has become self-reinforcing even though China is now desperate to reverse demographic decline. It may explain why by 2030, China's pets will outnumber children under four by a ratio of two to one. The estimate came from Goldman Sachs , which says the pet market will be worth $12 billion (€10.6 billion) by then. Urban Chinese, in particular, are opting for pets. The same Goldman Sachs report noted that in Japan, there are already 20 million pets, roughly four times the number of humans aged under four. Japan's pet food market is eight times larger than its infant formula market. Kubinyi suggests that many people do not currently experience an optimum level of social connection, leading to greater isolation, depression and loneliness. However, human beings are hard-wired to exist in small yet dense human networks. It is unsurprising, then, that humans turn to companion animals, with their capacity for unconditional love, to fill that need. Dogs are increasingly being bred to have characteristic features like human babies – big eyes, flatter faces and cute cuddliness. As someone who grew up on a farm where dogs were working animals and kept outside, I admit to being nonplussed by people's current relationships with dogs, particularly the first time I saw a dog buggy, complete with what seemed like a perfectly healthy dog being wheeled along. Dog clothes, including Halloween costumes, make me worry for the dog. And what pooch benefits from a puppucino? Pet ownership confers many benefits on humans. It is lovely to see elderly people light up when a dog is brought into a nursing home. But there is something askew in our culture when pets are expected to function either as substitutes for unconditional love, or as babies. Loyal creatures like dogs are not designed to be fur babies, a term that makes me deeply uncomfortable. Dogs are pack animals with strict hierarchies. The pack leader enforces strict boundaries and roles that allow the dog to relax. Expecting dogs to act like substitute humans is unfair to dogs and not great for human prospects, either. One thing that the Hungarian study may overlook is that while it correctly points out that the number of people who view their pets as children is small, it is likely to grow as a trend. Currently in Hungary, despite multiple pronatalist policies such as women who have four children being exempt from income tax for life , only 6.2 per cent of the population is aged under six. As family sizes shrink and childbearing is postponed, many adults do not have young children in their households or extended social networks and this becomes the norm. Anna Rotkirsch, a Finnish demographer , says that having children has moved from a rite of passage into adulthood to a 'capstone' experience – something you do after you have exhausted all the individualised pleasures, such as satisfying work and travel. But women's biology knows nothing about capstones. By the time people feel they are in the right place, or that they can afford children, women's fertility has often declined to the point where it becomes increasingly difficult to conceive. Rotkirsch also points out that it has become socially acceptable to say that you don't like children, and it's the only demographic that you can ever say that about. There is something sad about any society that does not have enough faith in the future to prioritise having children and ensure that women are not penalised for having children earlier. No amount of doggy cuddles will ameliorate the demographic catastrophe we are facing everywhere from Ireland to India.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
He is the strongman who inspired Trump – but is Viktor Orbán losing his grip on power?
On a sunny April afternoon in Budapest, a handful of reporters crowded around the back entrance of the Dorothea, a luxury hotel tucked between a Madame Tussauds waxworks museum and a discount clothing store in the city's walking district. Most had spent hours outside the hotel, hoping to confirm reports that Donald Trump Jr was inside. News of his visit had leaked two days earlier, but much of his agenda remained shrouded in secrecy, save for a meeting with the Hungarian foreign minister. Reports had also circulated of a closed-door speech the US president's eldest child and Trump Organization executive was slated to give on bridging governments to the private sector at the five-star hotel reportedly owned by the son-in-law of Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Few other details emerged from the visit. But it was a hint of the outsized role that this small central European country, home to 9.6 million people, is playing in the US's political conversation. Trump and those around him have long talked up Orbán's Hungary, depicting it, in the words of one Hungarian journalist, as a sort of 'Christian conservative Disneyland'. The veneration of its alliance of populism and Christianity has persisted, even as the country plunges in press freedom rankings, faces accusations of no longer being a full democracy, and becomes the most corrupt country in the EU. As Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation thinktank that produced Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for Trump's second term, once put it: 'Modern Hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft, but the model.' Orbán, the prime minister who once described Hungary as a 'petri dish for illiberalism', has been lauded by Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon as 'Trump before Trump'. The US vice-president, JD Vance, once characterised Orbán's purge of gender studies in academia as a model to be followed. The US president last year called him a 'very great leader, a very strong man'. He added: 'Some people don't like him because he's too strong. It's nice to have a strong man running your country.' Since Trump began his second term in January, the adoration has seemingly turned to emulation at a frenzied pace. Trump, like Orbán before him, has seized on state powers to pursue rivals, embraced dark rhetoric to demonise political opponents and purge 'wokeness' from institutions, in what analysts described as the Orbánisation of America. For rights groups, journalists and activists in Hungary who have long pushed back against the steady erosion of rights by arguably the modern world's most successful populist leader, the parallels are eerie. Over the past 15 years they have challenged a playbook that has now gone global, turning them into a singular source on how Americans – and others around the world – can fight back in the face of democratic backsliding. 'Sometimes it might seem kind of tempting to say: 'OK, we're just going to make this compromise, and it might go away,'' said András Kádár of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a Budapest-based NGO. 'But the Hungarian example shows that they always go one step further; we always hit new rock bottoms. It's very important to fight every inch and bit of this process.' Much of what Orbán is doing follows in the footsteps of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or Russia's Vladimir Putin, he said. But one crucial difference explained why Hungary had captured imaginations in the US, Kádár said. 'It's unprecedented in the sense that you have a full-fledged democracy … in the heart of the European Union, which very consciously chose to go this way.' In the course of Orbán's 15-year rule, there is little his government hasn't tinkered with. After targeting judges and recasting electoral policy to make it harder to oust his party, universities were purged of gender studies courses and public institutions were put under the control of Orbán loyalists. His critics have accused him of using state tenders to line the pockets of loyalists and of wielding state subsidies to reward pro-government media outlets and starve critical media. Some of the weakened media outlets were later snapped up by entrepreneurs loyal to Orbán and transformed into government mouthpieces, with his Fidesz party and its loyalists now estimated to control 80% of the country's media. Throughout it all – in an echo of a strategy that would later be replicated in the US – there was one constant. 'This whole process has been going on behind this smoke screen of hate propaganda, with different targets,' said Kádár, pointing to Orbán's targeting of Brussels and the EU as well as migrants. 'Then they say we need all these powers, these unchecked and uncontrolled powers to protect the people from those enemies inside and outside.' When it comes to the US, many in Budapest highlighted the differences in how things were playing out. 'Compared to what's happening in the United States, here it was rather slow,' said Péter Krekó, the director of the Political Capital Institute thinktank. 'So here it's more like the frog boiling in the water model, while in the United States, I think it's a coup, practically.' Hungary's transformation, however gradual, has been striking. At the start of the 21st century, the country was a regional leader when it came to the quality of democratic institutions and their independence. It is now the region's worst performer democratically, after what Krekó described as the 'Hungarian propaganda machine' drilled the government's line into people. 'It's all over the country, on every billboard, radio spots, on TV. It's an Orwellian campaign, but on many topics it can shape public opinion very efficiently.' What had emerged was a country where the notion of who belongs had been recast, said Ádám András Kanicsár, a journalist and LGBTQ+ activist. 'The government has an idea of who is a proper Hungarian and who is not,' he said. 'And in the last 15 years, this picture has been narrowed down more and more. Right now, you are a proper Hungarian if you have two children, you are white and Christian and have a job, and are living in a happy marriage. And this is the only way to be a good Hungarian.' This year Orbán and his backers banned all public LGBTQ+ events. Looking back, Kanicsár said the community had long been too passive in asserting their rights. Although the government's ban led many in the community to speak up, they were now on the defensive, explaining why their hard-won rights needed to be protected, rather than pushing for advances such as same-sex marriage. 'They have the narrative now,' he said, referring to the government. 'We can't bring new topics to the table.' The government's most recent amendment also enshrined the recognition of only two sexes in Hungary's constitution, wiping out the identities of people such as Lilla Hübsch. 'Basically my existence right now is unconstitutional, which is kind of crazy,' said the trans activist as she joined Kanicsár at a bustling coffee shop in Pest, the part of the capital that flanks the eastern bank of the Danube. For Kanicsár, it was a reminder of how many in Hungary – and around the world – had long assumed progress was inevitable. 'It's a big mistake. We think that history is a narrow line upwards, that we are always getting better and better, more liberal, more democratic,' he said. 'But we can always lose it. And if you have it and you lose it, it can be really hurtful.' The banning of Budapest Pride, just as it was gearing up to celebrate its 30th anniversary, was a poignant example. 'If you have these rights, don't take them for granted. Cherish them, talk about them and protest for them, because there are always new people who have to hear your message.' When the Guardian visited Budapest last month, sitting down with people in offices, coffee shops, and dining rooms, a note of hope threaded through many interviews. With elections slated for spring 2026, Orbán is facing an unprecedented challenge from a former member of the Fidesz party's elite, Péter Magyar. Several recent polls suggest that, if the trend continues, Orbán could lose his grip on power. 'For the first time in 15 years, there is a serious contender,' said Péter Erdélyi, the founder of the Budapest-based Center for Sustainable Media. With hope, however, comes risk: now was, he said, a dangerous moment for anyone perceived to be standing in Orbán's way. This year the prime minister said he would 'eliminate the entire shadow army' of foreign-funded 'politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists', suggesting he could go further than previously used tactics such as smear campaigns, relentless audits and physical intimidation by Fidesz supporters. Orbán's party seemingly made good on the threat when it put forward legislation that would give authorities broad powers to, in the words of one rights organisation, 'strangle and starve' NGOs and independent media it sees as a threat to national sovereignty. The draft law, said Transparency International, marked a 'dark turning point' for Hungary. 'It is designed to crush dissent, silence civil society, and dismantle the pillars of democracy,' the organisation said. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee issued a similar warning. 'If this bill passes, it will not simply marginalise Hungary's independent voices – it will extinguish them,' said thhe co-chair Márta Pardavi. The situation in Hungary had been made more complicated by Trump's ascension to the White House, said Erdélyi. 'The US government, almost regardless of who occupied the White House, was a moderating force on authoritarians pretty much everywhere but certainly in central Europe,' he said. 'And the new White House, of course, is not only not interested in being that, but it is also turning away from the transatlantic relationship or multilateralism in general.' Magyar's swift rise has shaken Hungarian politics, according to Miklós Ligeti of Transparency International Hungary, who credited the politician and his movement, Tisza, for catapulting corruption to the top of Hungarians' concerns. Through his savvy use of social media and rallies that have drawn thousands, Magyar has repeatedly linked underperforming public services such as healthcare and schools to the country's soaring levels of corruption. 'Now people start to understand that the serious underfunding of these two services is somehow linked to the fact that the government is spending taxpayers' money on the enrichment of certain business entrepreneurs who have good ties with the government,' said Ligeti. While Orbán and his party had long been able to deflect criticism by pointing to the country's strong economy, this was no longer the case, sparking questions as to how they keep their grasp on power, said Márton Gulyás, a left-leaning political commentator who helms Partizán, the country's most-watched political YouTube channel. 'I think right now they are in a very dangerous phase, mostly because of the tremendous problems in the economy,' he said. 'They're losing money heavily on debt, inflation is still high, food prices are still high and wages have stagnated.' He said the unprecedented political challenge has been heightened by new models of journalism that had learned to evade Orbán's heavy hand, from Gulyás's YouTube channel, which employs 70 people, and independent outlets such as 444, Telex, and Among them was András Pethő, who left his newsroom a decade ago after it became evident the publisher was under growing pressure to toe the government line. When he cofounded the investigative media outlet Direkt36, he knew the model had to be different. 'We set up this organisation in a way that would be more resilient against these kinds of pressures,' said Pethő as he drove to Szombathely, a small city in the west of Hungary where Direkt36 was screening a documentary on the lavish business dealings linked to Orbán's family since he took power. The event was an example of how journalists are forging direct, grassroots connections with audiences across Hungary. 'We don't have investors, we don't have a corporate owner, because we saw that that's how pressure is exerted,' Pethő said. In recent years there have been many warnings about the Hungarian government's erosion of democracy. In 2018, it was accused of trying to 'stop democracy' after it passed a law criminalising lawyers and activists who help asylum seekers. Four years later, members of the European parliament backed a report outlining why Hungary could no longer be considered a full democracy. Most recently, a delegation of EU lawmakers called on Hungary to return to 'real democracy' after a visit to the country. Although Hungary may serve as a model of sorts for the US, many in Budapest questioned whether the same impact was possible across the Atlantic. 'I think the intention is similar,' said Erdélyi of the Center for Sustainable Media. But Hungary's economy relies heavily on outside forces; it is not a global superpower. 'It's easy to centralise here because there's not that much stuff to centralise.' The sentiment was echoed by Zoltán Ádám, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences. 'Once you build a two-thirds majority in parliament, you are basically ruling the world in this country,' he said. 'So you can introduce a monarchy or make Viktor Orbán's uncle the champion of whatever sports competition – I'm joking, but it's just half a joke.' This majority allows Orbán and his backers to rewrite the country's laws at will to serve their own political purposes. 'This is a fully controlled country to a large extent,' said Ádám. 'This is not totalitarian in the 20th-century sense, this is not a Bolshevik or a fascist system, but all the major institutional actors in the country are actually controlled by the government.' In the US, in contrast, the federal nature provided a built-in system of checks and balances that should protect the country against this sort of threat, said Ádám. 'Trump doesn't control the governor of Massachusetts or the state house of California.' Others questioned how Hungary had come to be seen as a model for the US. 'It's funny because this is a narrative that was built up by Viktor Orbán's circles,' said a former Fidesz politician who left the party decades ago after becoming disillusioned with Orbán's leadership. 'It's a story that was sold to the Americans,' said the former politician, who asked not to be named, referring to reports that have alleged that the Hungarian government spent millions of euros on intermediaries tasked with selling the US a specific image of Orbán and Hungary. 'They sold it in a very smart way because they used American terms that don't have much sense in Hungary,' she said. 'So like 'gender war', 'woke' – there's no 'woke' issue in Hungary. Hungary is much more behind in terms of progressivism than the United States … Hungary's not even a multicultural country; it's very homogenous in every sense.' For 15 years she has watched Orbán tighten his grip on power. The longer it went on, the greater Orbán's motivation would be to cling to power at any cost, she warned. 'The system only works for them if they are in power, because they create their own rules. They know that all the rules will change if they lose power.' Her comments came days before it emerged that Hungarian officials had asked the European parliament, for the third time, to lift Magyar's immunity as an MEP. Magyar described it as an attempt by Orbán and his party to levy false charges against him and block him from running in next year's elections. The Hungarian government was approached for comment for this article, but a representative cited time constraints and declined to meet. The possibility of speaking with someone from a government-linked institute was then floated, before the Guardian was told that they would have no time to speak either in person or over the phone. Just how much Orbán and his party's views line up with those of his counterparts in the US remains a matter of debate. Orbán had long cultivated an image of himself as a stalwart of conservative values, using it as a cover to ease his access to the US administration, said the investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi. 'Orbán just uses this as a smokescreen,' he said. 'I think he just invented these pro-family, anti-migration policies; it's something that he can advertise as a common denominator among all of the conservative groups in the world.' 'But in reality, what makes Orbán really powerful and interesting … is everything that is going against the US Republican values and policies,' he added, pointing to Hungary's full state control of certain industries and Orbán's heavy reliance on Chinese industry and technology and Russian fossil fuels. In recent weeks, analysts have warned that Orbán's ties to Trump could begin to work against him if the US president's tariffs hurt the country's economy. If Orbán's hold on power were to be weakened by Trump, it would be a tremendous irony, said Panyi. 'It could be Orbán's tragedy. That by the time that all the stars align when it comes to foreign policy, by the time he reaches that level where he can legitimately claim that his comrades are on the rise and there's a far-right wave and he's been spearheading it, at least ideologically, that by that time his domestic support is crumbling.'
