Steven N.Viktor Orbán recorded a video message to Brazilian voters in support of Jair Bolsonaro, which the Brazilian President shared to Twitter on Saturday:
My dear Brazilian friends, you are coming up on an important election. I’ve been serving my country here in Europe for thirty years. I’ve met many leaders, but I’ve seen few as outstanding as your president.
-says Viktor Orbán in the campaign video.
I wish for him to continue his work, and that you in Brazil can enjoy its blessing! We are talking about a president who, despite a world ruled by progressives, was brave enough to put Brazil before everything else and God before all of us. Go Bolsonaro!
-the Hungarian Prime Minister ended his video.
Brazil is holding presidential elections this Sunday. The populist Bolsonaro has been in office since 2019, and is facing former left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in his re-election campaign.
Brazilian President Bolsonaro made his first trip to Hungary this past February, arriving in Budapest directly after a visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. [HVG]
Birds of a feather flock together e.g. the hoped for rebirth of an Axis of dictators by Orbán, not unlike international/global appeal of fascism from 1920-1945 (See “International Fascism, 1920-1945” edited by Walter Laquer and George L Mosse for the diversity of fascism and fellow travelers). Italy and Sweden have “elected” leaders of political parties who draw their inspiration from fascist parties, while Orbán draws his inspiration from the cowardly fascist fellow traveler, Horthy. Putin is more complicated, but Timothy Synder makes an excellent case for the influence of fascist thinking on Putin (“The Road to Unfreedom, Russia Europe and America”), let alone in the rest of Europe and -sadly- the US.
Bosolnaro looks quite behind in the polls though so the Brazilians appear to be rejecting this kind of politics. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow for sure.
Bolsonaro is behind in polls. Lula leads by a small margin.
The problem is the extreme polarisation across the political spectrun im Brazil.
It boils down to a matter of substantial public hate and systemic corruption on the balance.
What Orbán can contribute in this mix of paranoia and dog-eat-dog politics is questionable. Probably nothing, but Hungarian media can use it for projecting their leader’s image onto a virtual world-scene.