Below is my column in The Hill on the defeat of Viktor Orban. There were good-faith criticism of Orban as autocratic. However, the irony is that Hungary may have now cleared the way for the final stage of the European Union in overruling individual nations and their citizens on core policies.
Here is the column:
The defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary last weekend was celebrated by many who saw the former president as establishing single-party rule in his central European nation. The irony is that this claimed victory for democracy may fuel the establishment of a global governance system that is neither democratic nor accountable to citizens.
The European Union was criticized by many for taking sides in the Hungarian election and for undermining Orban, who asserted national priorities in disputes with the EU. No sooner had Orban conceded defeat than a jubilant European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the final coup de grace for national identity and sovereignty: the elimination of the ability of nations to stand against EU policies.
Orban was controversial for his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his lack of support for Ukraine. He was also accused of authoritarianism and corruption. I shared in some of those criticisms. However, the unintended consequence of this election could be the removal of a single autocrat in favor of a global bureaucracy.
Van der Leyen helped elect the pro-EU Peter Magyar in order to remove a barrier to the EU’s ultimate exercise of power. The EU had been squeezing Hungary over its defiance by holding back billions in funds. Magyar is expected to be the perfect suppliant, willing to fall into line with the EU agenda.
The EU Chief has reportedly already given Magyar a list of 27 demands he must meet before she will turn the spigot back on. She did not try to hide the agenda, announcing that the EU needed to “use the momentum now” to consolidate its power.
Under the plan, member states would lose control of their policy and could be forced to adhere to the priorities and values of the EU majority.
The EU Chief celebrated the new day of global governance in the making: “Moving to qualified majority voting in foreign policy is an important way to avoid systemic blockages, as we have seen in the past.”
In “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the dangers posed to the American republic this century by the rise of global governance systems like the EU. The book explores how globalists planned to gradually get nations to yield their authority to the EU — destroying national identity and sovereignty in favor of an EU bureaucracy in Brussels.
As the EU moves to kill off national sovereignty, EU commissioners are calling for a single European military command, completing a longstanding globalist goal.
The 250th anniversary of our republic is occurring as we face an unprecedented EU threat. Our revolution was fought against a foreign empire. It now faces an even greater threat from a global government asserting the right to compel American companies to censor Americans and comply with environmental, social and governance or ESG policies.
At the same time, American figures such as Hillary Clinton are encouraging the EU to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights using the infamous Digital Services Act to restore speech controls to social media. Other Americans have testified before the EU, calling on it to fight the U.S. Banners are now flying in Europe declaring, “We are the Free World Now,” as the globalists attempt to supplant freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
If the American Republic is to survive another 250 years, it must preserve key rights that the EU has been systematically destroying in Europe — freedom of speech, division of powers and political accountability of decision-makers.
That is why, I believe, the EU is inherently unstable and likely to ultimately collapse.
The EU has worked very hard to dismantle national sovereignty and identity in its member states. Historically, such collapses have been followed by different forms of tyranny.
Whatever comes next — and I could be wrong in my pessimism about the EU — the U.S. must take seriously the threat that this global governance system poses to our own values and sovereignty.
Von der Leyen is right that there is “momentum now” for the globalists, but the momentum of history still rests with the U.S. and its unique experiment in self-governance.
We saw this threat before, and we defeated a world empire. If we are to survive and thrive in this century, we will need to return to our own creation as a republic — to dig deep down and remember who we are as citizens.
Ours was the first Enlightenment revolution that embraced natural rights originating not from government but from God. We remain a unique people, joined by an article of faith found in our own Declaration of Independence. If this republic is to survive, it will be up to each of us, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, to “keep it.”
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
“We are the Free World Now!” declares the EU, “and if you disagree publicly, we will jail you.” These authoritarians in Brussels crave unchecked power the same way their National Socialist forebears did. It seems the mistake made by Hitler was in not calling his new unified Europe as a “union” and speaking of how great it would be that he was spreading unified freedom across all of his European Union. Any hint of disagreement that the EU is the new free world will be met with very harsh punishment. George Orwell would love it.
“Magyar is expected to be the perfect suppliant, willing to fall into line with the EU agenda.”
Someone is not keeping up with the news. Prime Minister Magyar-elect told Ursala von der Leyen to take her “Migration Pact” and shove it.
Try to keep up with the news. Politics in Europe is changing in the direction you want. Don’t cling too tight to your past grievances.
This one hits home for me. You’ve got von der Leyen out there saying “use the momentum” to kill what’s left of national vetoes. That’s a nice way of saying “get the little people out of the way.” They dress it up as fixing “blockages,” but everybody knows what it means on the street. If your country says no to some war, some sanction, some green scheme, some speech rule, too bad. Brussels votes, you obey. A veto is not a technicality. It is the one hard line that says, “we still own our house.” Take that out and you just turned nations into provinces.
Then I listen to Clarence Thomas in Texas, and he is talking about the same thing, just with our founding documents in his hand. He reminds people that our rights do not come from the EU, from Washington, or from some agency. They come from God. The government does not hand you a permission slip to speak, worship, defend your family and then yank it back when you get too loud. The whole point of the Declaration and the Constitution was to chain power down and leave the people standing tall, not the other way around.
What he is hitting is the same mindset you are warning about here. The idea that “the experts” and the big bureaucracies know best and regular people should just sit down, shut up, and let themselves be managed. In Europe they are doing it with this push to end vetoes and build an EU super‑state that can tell every member what to do. Over here we do it with alphabet agencies, censorship “rules,” and a class of folks who think the Constitution is in the way of their plans.
For me, the key word in all of this is formation. What kind of people are we making. If you raise generations to think of themselves as customers of government, or “users” on a platform, or problems for experts to solve, they will forget how to be citizens. They will keep voting, but they will stop thinking like owners. And once people stop thinking like owners, the people who run these systems will happily take full ownership.
So when von der Leyen talks about momentum, and Thomas talks about liberty dying when we choose comfort over courage, I hear the same bottom‑line question. Are we going to be citizens or subjects. Are we going to remember that our rights are bigger than Brussels and bigger than Washington, or are we going to let the global managers pat us on the head and tell us what “freedom” means now.
If we want this republic around for another 250 years, it is not enough to yell at Europe or complain about the administrative state. We have to get back to building people who can actually handle being free. People who know their rights, know their duties, and are willing to pay a price to keep both. That is street‑level work. Families, churches, local schools, small groups of neighbors who decide, “No, we are going to act like citizens again.”
That is what I hear under both your warning and Thomas’s. The fight is not just over structures. It is over souls.
Wow, what delusion, from Von der Leyden to Thomas? And what’s this “we” address?
Olly, its all irrelevant nonsense you posted. Posting 500 jumbled words doesn’t make for easy reading, especially because you make no relevant points. You do not have the capacity or experience to understand EU/European foreign policy and politics vis a vis to US politics and foreign policy. In other words, a waste of time.
Have you ever contributed to academic or semi-academic publications? I would be shocked if you said yes, and then ask you to prove it. Your juvenile wordsmithing is nothing more than high school level pomp.
What has socialism/communism brought to the world except poverty, destruction and death? Nothing.
What has modern Islam brought to the world except poverty, destruction and death? Nothing
Yet the EU welcomed both to their Union.
And Capitalism never caused poverty, destruction and death? And what has Christianity bought? Death, destruction and poverty too.
You’re not a philosopher.
George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” isn’t fiction.
Yes it is. Seek help.
Turley, you describe the election of Péter Magyar as potentially fueling an unaccountable bureaucracy, yet Magyar’s Tisza party won a historic supermajority with the highest number of votes in democratic Hungarian history. Framing the clear will of 3.3 million Hungarian voters as a “coup de grace” for national identity contradicts the very principle of self-governance you champion. It was a landslide. 78% of voters participated. That’s higher than our own voter participation.
Also, you suggest Ursula von der Leyen is using a “list of 27 demands” to consolidate power. In reality, these are rule-of-law reforms—including judicial independence and anti-corruption measures—that Hungary previously agreed to as a condition for EU membership. Restoring these standards is an effort to strengthen democratic accountability, not bypass it.
What Turkey is not directly pointing out is that this is really bad news for Trump and republicans. Trump was endorsing Orban.
According to you everything is really bad news for Trump. What is bad news for everyone is liberal cheating in elections all over the Earth.
How did you come up with load of BS?
George you are not a pundit. You should setup your own blog.
One Government for all of EU is a bad idea.
They’ve had that for decades.
How do you know that? Lived in a One Government for all of EU, before?
The professor is a national treasure. But he is always so reluctant to point out that fascism exists in our own country and that it is on the left where he came from, even though he points out the facts and unmistakable conclusions every day.
One of the rare times I disagree with you Professor. “E Pluribus Unum”, and all that applies in Europe too. “Unity is our Strength”. While the policies of the EU can be justly criticized, forming “a more perfect union” cannot be. Just recall that the countries that make up the EU all were at one time monarchies. It will take them another century or two to appreciate freedom from government oppression. At the same time we are moving in their direction.
The EU Union would have been okay without communism and Islam but when the EU Union embraced both they were doomed. The US union is not that far away from that doom either. Neither World Communism or Islam ever give up and they both made huge inroads into the US under Joe Biden. Vigilance is no longer enough, they both need to be removed or we are doomed too. Do we have the will or even the numbers to do that? Probably not.
Whether you agree with him or not is irrelevant. Its his blog. Your Juvenile comments are an annoyance.
WOL, I’ve got to be honest, I’m surprised to see you, of all people, leaning on “E pluribus unum” here.
Our motto was never just a feel‑good slogan about “unity.” It had a very specific meaning in a very specific story. Out of many colonies came one people, under one Constitution, with one rule of law that was built to protect God‑given rights and keep government in its place. Out of many states, one nation, under a shared culture and charter that everybody signed onto with their eyes open.
What the EU is doing is almost the reverse. They are taking many cultures, many legal traditions, and many ideas of what “rights” and “sovereignty” mean, and they are folding them under a remote structure in Brussels with its own rulebook. That rulebook may or may not line up with what those nations and their people have come to understand as their rights. When von der Leyen talks about ending the national veto, she is not talking about “out of many, one” in the American sense. She is talking about “out of many, you now answer to us.”
Your take on this is kind of like saying, “Hey, we’ve got an HOA, so it’s all E pluribus unum, right?” No. There is a big difference between neighbors agreeing to basic rules so everybody can live in peace, and the HOA board voting that you have to keep your front door unlocked so they can walk in whenever they think you “need protection.” And then telling you by the way, you don’t get a veto. That is not unity. That is control.
The whole point of the American version of “out of many, one” was that the “one” was limited, grounded in the Declaration, and answerable to the people. The EU version you’re defending here is a “one” that is trying to cut off every last way the “many” can say no. That should set off alarms for anyone who actually cares about freedom from government oppression, especially someone with your background in the law.
What a heap of BS. From E Pluribus Unum to the EU? A failed leap, as usual. The medication isn’t working.