Professor Gavin Barrett:

The change in Poland is a major change for the good. I think most people would think that Poland was moving down a slippery slope that we would not want to see it go along. Unfortunately, the situation in Hungary has gone much further than that. If one saw the newspaper reports at the time of the last election in Hungary, it was almost a joke. Every local newspaper in Hungary had the same headline in it: “Isn’t Orbán Wonderful?” or something like that. The judiciary, a subject dear to the Senator’s heart, has been completely undermined there. It is a kleptocratic, autocratic Government and it is a serious problem. Even in the last elections there were serious concerns about the integrity of those particular elections. Therefore, I am not even sure it is possible to get Orbán out of power by democratic means at this stage. Of course, as has been said by other speakers here, it is not just Poland and Hungary. There are other countries as well in which serious rule of law issues have arisen.