Democracy Digest: ‘Orbolsonaro’ Is a Family Affair

Orban also promised he would prevent any pro-migration regulations in the EU, even at the level of recommendations, and underlined his government's belief in the traditional family model, comprised of a man and a woman. Bolsonaro, in return, praised Orban and said the values of his government - God, fatherland, family, freedom - make Hungary a model for Brazil. "We will fight together for the protection of families to keep our societies healthy," he added.

Protecting the traditional family has become one of the main campaign themes for Hungary's nationalist-conservative government in the run-up to the April 3 parliamentary election. Earlier this week, the official election campaign began, with Orban's state of the nation address, where he called on his voters and supporters "to fight the last battle against the left".

Following this week's decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to dismiss a legal challenge by Hungary and Poland over a new EU tool that will allow it to slash payments to member states found to be undermining the rule of law in their countries, the main campaign slogan of Orban's Fidesz party has become "protect the children".

This is because Orban and his officials are busy trying to convince voters that it is not Hungary's continued undermining of the rule of law and a failure to root out corruption that is behind moves like that of the CJEU, but it is the government's recently passed "child protection law" - actually, a bunch of anti-LGBT laws - that lie at the heart of Budapest's disagreements with Brussels.

Orban seems to be following a similar strategy to his migration agenda four years ago: creating an imaginary enemy - in this case LGBT propaganda - and assuring society that only Fidesz can...