Rob Schmitz
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Aba?
That's Abel Boyar and NPR's Esme Nicholson.
This episode was produced by Michael Levitt, Matej Halmoš, and Daniel Hoffman.
It was edited by Sarah Robbins.
Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.
It's Consider This from NPR.
I'm Rob Schmitz.
Viktor Orban is Europe's longest-running prime minister.
He's been in power for more than 15 years straight after serving four other years as prime minister in the late 90s.
He is famous for his populist nationalist far-right politics.
He's friends with Vladimir Putin.
He is a staunch enemy of the EU, and he rails against the European Union on an almost daily basis.
is also known for another thing and that's his corruption.
He has well-documented cases of corruption, of giving money to his friends and family, doling out government contracts to them.
He's also famous for chipping away at Hungary's democratic institutions, including the judiciary.
He has consolidated the media and he's attacked civil society and also universities inside of Hungary.
Well, despite the fact that the media in Hungary has been mostly consolidated, there amazingly remains some independent journalists in this country that are continuing to do some extremely good work.
And we're seeing more and more stories about Orbán's