Is Hungary becoming Putinized?

„But, says the Washington Post, "Europe cannot allow a member government to flout fundamental freedoms without consequence." The editorial even suggests that the European Union and America should boycott an EU summit in Budapest in May if the law is not rescinded.

The current issue of this newspaper includes a leader, about gloomy political trends in eastern Europe, that also deploys the P-word. "Signs of the... ailment are visible in Hungary", the piece argues. Indeed they are. But it is not clear to me that this amounts to "Putinisation". Journalists are not being beaten up or murdered here; Hungary has not de-facto annexed territory belonging to one of its neighbours, as Russia has done to Georgia; it has not levelled one of its own cities, as Russia did in Grozny; it has no equivalent of the Siloviki, the powerful members of the state security service allied to and patronised by Vladimir Putin in Russia.

The claim of "Putinisation" in Hungary is nonsensical, says György Schöpflin, a Fidesz MEP. "Part of the problem is that the left simply cannot cope with Viktor Orbán [Hungary's prime minister]. Orbán has charisma, the capacity to move people... I don’t see this autocracy happening. There are debates, there is opposition. I wish there was a better opposition, a proper centre-left opposition that was committed to democracy."

What do readers think? Is Hungary becoming an authoritarian, overcentralised one-party state where the checks and balances of democracy are being dismantled? Or is this complaining sour grapes from bad losers who cannot accept that Mr Orbán commands enormous loyalty from his supporters and led his party to an unprecedented electoral victory? Over to you.”