First, even before capturing the government, cement your autocratic rule of iron fist over the party structure, Marxist-Leninist style. Vet every single candidate. Require your underlings to deposit with you their signed resignation, to be used if they misbehave.

When you come to power, start ruthlessly changing the constitution of the state in secret and as many times as you need. 12 times in your first year to be exact. Eliminate four-fifths requirement for constitutional changes. Goal: game the system so no one else can get elected.

Implement grotesquely gerrymandered districts. Entrust the process to only a few Fidesz loyalists. Manipulate the sizes of districts so that the opposition gets to be favoured in large ones and you in many small ones. So you can keep winning.

Eliminate runoffs so you can win with significantly less than majorities. Have loyal oligarchs create hundreds of fake new “parties”(literally, there were about 200 new ones registered for 2022 elections), often with names misleadingly close to real opposition parties.

Anticipate all possible strategies of the opposition. Render them useless preemptively with creative constitutional changes. Example: introduce heightened barriers to entering parliament. One opposition party faces a 5% hurdle. Two in a coalition will face 10%! And so on.

Now you’re winning. With 49% of the vote, you sweep off 86% of constituencies. But danger lurks. What if ALL other parties gang up on you? Let’s add more tools to block such possibilities. We’ll introduce unusual and highly creative requirements. Make them run the gauntlet.

If you think we’re done, you’re not cut out for first-tier authoritarianism. Introduce voter tourism! When you can’t change the districts any more, change the voters. Bus your loyalists to vote anywhere in the country where there’s a danger of the opposition winning.

Bus loyalists not only from one county to another but also from the “near-abroad”. When journalists start sniffing around this bussing operation, harass and threaten them.

Allow “ethnic Hungarians” in neighbouring states to vote (after giving them citizenship) with unmonitored, unsecured ballots. Keep voter lists secret. That’s right, the people who lent support to Trump’s Big Lie are masters of truly shady mail-in voting.

Introduce the truly novel “winner compensation”. Most systems where people vote for parties and individuals have “loser compensation” to equalise the field. Orbán added winner compensation. How does that work?

Imagine the winner got 1000 votes and the opposition got 500. The new law says that the winner only needed 501 votes to win. Therefore, his “extra” 499 votes get added to the party list. This trick alone was enough to give Orbán constitutional majorities in all elections so far.

So far we’re in the category “free but not fair” elections (exactly the assessment of electoral monitors). But now we’ll go beyond that. Enter the widespread Fidesz practice of chain-voting. Yes, it’s as illegal as it sounds. I don’t even know how to describe it. Read:

But if you only relied on manipulation of the law and shenanigans to win, you wouldn’t be the master authoritarian that Orbán is. Unroll extra social spending before the elections.

Inflame massive “wedge issues”, which incite hate, prejudice, xenophobia, racism and paranoia. Lately, it’s been of course, “gender” and the toxic outpouring of related sentiments. This never fails to attract the hate elements (esp. former Jobbik voters) and gain you seats.

You’ve built a vast patronage machine. Fidesz mayors hand out “extra” jobs and grants to their clients and, of course, at electoral time all beneficiaries are reminded that they’re expected to return the favour. Or else they might see those cushy jobs doing nothing disappear.

The media, of course! Strangle it. Keep a few outlets that strictly stick to the script. Anyone who doesn’t toe the line must expect financial ruin and actual threats to their safety. Have your loyal oligarchs buy up the hitherto diverse media and make them…uniform.

Ok, you aren’t jailing journalists (just ruining them financially and reputationally, and subjecting them to savage harassment) but you have to draw the line at open revolts. Then even assassination threats are in order:

This isn’t an exhaustive account and we haven’t even talked about the destruction of the judiciary. It takes a lot of work to implement a bloodless takeover of the state by an authoritarian regime that has no intention of ever relinquishing power.

Examples taken from the thorough overview of the machinations of the Orbán state by Kim Lane Scheppele. https://www.journalofdemocracy...

@Rail_splitter1 This is why Tucker Carlson and many US conservatives love Orban's Hungary

@carman_upshaw Absolutely. He’s given all his acolytes worldwide a 13-year long master class on how to destroy a functioning, competitive democracy without firing a bullet. While being a member of the world’s elite law-abiding club, the EU.

@Rail_splitter1 Thank you! I have been interested in how Orban did it for a while now. Doesn't the EU require countries to be democracies in order to be a member?

@Kezhuli2 It does. Hungary was a democracy when it joined the EU. All of this happened while Hungary was already a EU member. Ironically, it could not have happened without the EU. Corruption in the control and distribution of EU funds is what made the Orbán machine possible.

@Rail_splitter1 I read your tweets with great interest. Could the fall of Putin help the Hungarians out of Orban? is there a will to get out of this autocratic system?

@RH21Vise The fall of Putin is likely to be a crushing blow to Orbán. Especially if the EU holds firm in not disbursing the funds that Orbán relies on to fund his patronage system, which literally buys him votes. The will to get rid of this corrupt group is definitely there.

@Rail_splitter1 Mit absolute Mehrheit kann jede Partei die Gesetze ändern. Also wenn die jetztige Mehrheit die absolute Mehrheit hat kann alles rückgängig machen. Das Problem ist das in Ungarn niemand will die Opposition an die Regierung! Das heißt DEMOKRATIE!

@Robert20271499 Natürlich kann theoretisch jeder die Gesetze ändern, wenn er die richtige Mehrheit hat. In meinem Thread ging es darum, dass Orbán unter anderem mit illegalen Manipulationen dafür gesorgt hat, dass ihm niemand mehr die Macht wegnehmen kann. Das nennt man ANTI-DEMOKRATIE.

@Rail_splitter1 And this is why Orban's Hungary has absolutely nothing to do in the European Union. A future democratic Hungary will be more than welcome, but the Hungary of today most definitely is not

@Rail_splitter1 Great article. And media is even worse in details.

@Rail_splitter1 Electoral autocracy! Someone below coined a new term for Orban's achievement. No wonder Delors called him dictator and mockingly slapped his face. Brilliant investigative reporting which I will RT but which really belongs in every mainstream media outlet in Europe and beyond.

@Rail_splitter1 This is a perfect summary!!! 👏👏👏