A journalist’s personal account of why one small European nation’s path away from liberal democracy carries vital lessons for us all. An unusually well-balanced, objective account that includes extensive interviews with leading figures from across the political spectrum.

Foreword by BBC News Central Europe Correspondent Nick Thorpe

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“The book you hold in your hands attempts the impossible: to find some middle ground in a country where the political center has long ceased to exist. That is its author’s first act of courage. To do so, he persuades politicians and analysts from both sides of the aisle to talk. . . . His conclusion will be startling for many Western readers: Viktor Orban is out there in front¾if you want to know what happens next, watch this space! Steve Bannon was one of the first to publicize that fact, calling him ‘Trump before Trump’. . . . Skytt’s great service to the reader is that he shows why so many Hungarians love Viktor Orbán so much. And through that gateway, he strides out onto the bigger political battlefield, to help us understand: why do so many people round the world love other leaders like Viktor Orban so much?”

—from the foreword by Nick Thorpe, BBC Central Europe Correspondent

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lasse Skytt (born 1987) is a Danish foreign correspondent who has covered Hungary and Central Europe for more than half a decade. Previously based in Copenhagen, London, and New York City, he graduated with a journalism degree from the New School in 2013 and has lived mostly in Hungary since.