El acaparamiento de tierras y el desarrollo de un régimen populista autoritario de derecha en Hungría

How do authoritarian populist regimes emerge and remain in place within the borders of the European Union in the 21st century? In Hungary, land grabbing by and for national oligarchs have been one of the central pillars maintaining Prime Minister Orbán’s regime both politically and economically. The phenomenon remains out of the public view and meets little resistance as the regime-controlled media keeps Hungarians distracted with «dangers» inflicted by the «enemies of the Hungarian people» such as refugees, the investor Georges Soros, and the European Union. The Hungarian case calls for increased scholarly-activist attention to how right-wing authoritarian populism is maintained by, and affects rural areas. In particular, in this article, I argue that changes in land tenure are a key rural driver and an important outcome of Orbán’s three consecutive electoral victories (2010, 2014, 2018).