It is no secret who Viktor Orban favours in the US presidential election on Tuesday, with Hungary's nationalist leader saying publicly that he will pop open bottles of champagne if his "dear friend" Donald Trump wins. It is a political friendship that the Hungarian prime minister -- whose illiberal policies and pro-Russian stance has made him a bete noir in the European Union -- has spent years cultivating and he could gain a powerful ally if Trump returns to the White House. One of the key people tasked with making the connection between Orban's "illiberal democracy" and US conservatives is Rod Dreher, a renowned American right-wing thinker and writer who works a few minutes' walk from Orban's seat of power inside Buda Castle.
"He had nothing to lose by coming out 100 percent for Trump," Dreher told AFP, adding that Hungary could "hit the jackpot" and gain a "powerful friend in its eternal struggle against the Brussels bullies". Hungary, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, has frequent run-ins with Brussels over the rule of law and a wide range of other issues. The Danube Institute, where Dreher works, is one of the pro-government think tanks focused on cultivating relationships with conservative figures on the other side of the Atlantic.
According to the investigative site Atlatszo, at least $1.64 million of public funds were spent on the institute's efforts over the past three years. Proudly advertising the so-called Hungarian model of conservatism, Dreher .
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