Press Roundup: Tucker Carlson’s Visit to Hungary and His Interview with PM Orbán

Analysing the interview the Prime Minister gave US Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Budapest last week, opposition-leaning authors discover divergences between the positions of the two men –despite their shared opinions on major themes in the ongoing culture war. Meanwhile, commenting on the widespread international media reaction to the one week visit the Fox News host has paid to Hungary and his interview with PM Orbán, a Hungarian Canadian sociologist believes Carlson has opened a breach in the ’cordon sanitaire’ built around Hungary.

Hungarian press roundup by budapost.eu

On the pro-government Látószög blogsite, Hungarian-Canadian academic Frank Füredi, an emeritus professor of sociology at Kent University gives an interpretation of why the mainstream Anglo-American media is “so excited about Tucker Carlson’s visit to Hungary”. As he sees it, the western media has pursued a policy of no-platforming the Hungarian Prime Minister, without realising the irony of denouncing Orbán for being authoritarian whilst ‘depriving him of a platform’ to promote his ideas. The globalist media, Füredi claims, has succeeded in establishing a cordon sanitaire around Hungary. They now fear that their ‘propaganda war’ may be set back if ordinary Americans actually hear what Orbán has to say. Füredi believes the media campaign against Tucker’s broadcasts from Budapest, including his interview with the Hungarian Prime Minister, is motivated by an anxiety that American listeners might actually sympathise with Orbán’s views.

In Népszava, Gábor Horváth describes Tucker Carson as a ‘desperate’ rich man who fights progressive ideas out of fear for his own privileges. Orbán, on the other hand, he continues, ‘implores’ the United States in the interview not to support the Hungarian opposition ahead of next year’s elections. The rage of both men, he concludes, is fuelled by fear.

On Azonnali, Csaba Tibor Tóth sees several issues on which Carlson’s views sharply differ from those of PM Orbán, despite their shared stance on others, including irregular migration, gender issues and wokeness. The interview would have been a lot livelier, he suggests, had they discussed China’s role in the world, which is a great concern for Carlson, as well as how strong the powers of central government should be, or the use of face masks during the pandemic, which is strongly opposed by Carlson.

On the Magyar Hang website, Szabolcs Szerető points out the two men’s diverging interpretations of illiberalism. Tucker Carlson accuses the American left of being illiberal by trying to restrict free speech on controversial issues. By contrast, Orbán describes his own political stance as illiberal because he rejects the views of today’s western liberals on issues like migration and gender. The Hungarian Prime Minister, however, simply uses such issues, Szerető alleges, as a cover for his real intention of eliminating checks on his power as national leader.

On the ATV website, Ildikó Csuhaj quotes unnamed sources close to the governing party, who told her that Orbán wanted to make clear in the interview that he doesn’t see any hope of a favourable change in the Biden administration’s unfriendly attitude toward his government. He framed the disagreements between the two sides in a typically American context, with himself seeing the world as characterised by Samuel Huntington as ‘a Clash of Civilizations’, rather than as seen by Francis Fukuyama in ‘The End of History’, as the ultimate triumph of liberal democracy.

Featured photo via PM Orbán’s Facebook page