Tag Archives: authoritarians

The Associated Press reports: Hungary’s cultural minister on Monday fired the director of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, accusing him of failing to comply with a contentious law that bans the display of LGBTQ+ content to minors. The dismissal of Laszlo L. Simon, who became director of the museum for a five-year term in 2021, came after Hungary’s government …

Reuters reports: Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday renewed an attack on the European Union for conducting what he called an “LGBTQ offensive”, saying his nationalist government would protect the country’s Christian roots. In a speech in Romania, Orban – a long-standing critic of Brussels – also said he hoped next year’s European parliament elections would strengthen governments within …

Bloomberg News reports: A majority of Brazil’s electoral court voted to bar Jair Bolsonaro from public office for eight years in what amounts to the first major legal rebuke of the former president, whose efforts to sow doubt about the 2022 election have now put his political future at risk. Four of the court’s seven judges said that the right-wing …

Reuters reports: President Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, a win that would steer his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade. Addressing supporters, Erdogan said voters had given him the responsibility to rule for the next five years. The election had been seen as one of the most consequential yet for Turkey, with the opposition …

Florida Politics reports: The Florida State Guard’s (FSG) budget will grow to 10 times its current level, nearly quadruple in personnel, and become a permanent part of state government under legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed. The measure (HB 1285), promulgated by Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo, creates a Division of the State Guard within the Department of Military Affairs as …

ABC News reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to forgo a traditional presidential campaign launch and will instead hold his “campaign kickoff” event next week in the key state of Iowa, according to campaign plans exclusively obtained by ABC News. The May 30 kickoff event will begin a four-day swing through 12 cities and towns in the early nominating states …

The Daily Beast reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin bizarrely claimed Friday that Kremlin critics living in exile drink beer with “female sex hormones.” Appearing virtually at a meeting of the council on foreign relations, Putin appeared nervous as he tried out a bit of stand-up comedy with his underlings and clumsily read from cue cards. “Let them continue to drink …

Bloomberg reports: Turkey is set to head to a runoff in a vote that’s become the strongest electoral test yet of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two decades in power. While preliminary results Monday showed Erdogan with a lead of more than 2 million votes, it wasn’t enough to secure the more than 50% of the ballot and avoid a second …

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis has been fortified with millions of dollars in taxpayer money for legal fights stemming from his polarizing legislative agenda, with the scene now shifting from the Capitol to the courthouse. Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate tucked an unprecedented almost $16 million into the state’s $117 billion budget for litigation costs to …

The Daily Beast reports: Turkish opposition officials say their supporters will take to the streets in “massive protests” if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan follows through on his threat not to concede power if he loses this Sunday’s presidential election. Erdogan has implied that his main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), is being supported by a …

From the editorial board of the Washington Post: Backed by GOP supermajorities in both chambers, Mr. DeSantis is waging frontal assaults on press freedom, reproductive freedom, free enterprise and academic freedom. Meanwhile, in the name of protecting gun rights, he has scaled back prudent safety rules. And now he’s poised to target undocumented immigrants, including “dreamers,” with what will be …

Bloomberg News reports: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban waded deeper into US politics with a message of support for former President Donald Trump before his arraignment, underscoring his pro-Republican leanings and his chilly relations with the Biden administration. The message was a highly unusual intervention from a head of government in US domestic affairs, especially from a European Union and …

Reuters reports: Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro returned from three months in the United States on Thursday and was welcomed back by hundreds of chanting supporters at the Brasilia airport before heading straight into meetings with his political party. The turnout was considerably smaller than expected by police, and a minister in leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula’s cabinet called …

Click Orlando reports: As lawmakers in Tallahassee consider Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget proposal this session, they will be also be deciding whether to approve a steep funding increase establishing Florida’s own branch of the military. The state guard was dismantled at the end of World War II. “The Florida State Guard will be comprised of Floridians, and it will be …

“I was afraid for my own well-being. I thought I could wind up in Guantanamo Bay. I think I still could. He was ranting about me all last week again. He’s obsessed sometimes. I don’t know. “He went on a tear for about eight months when he was president, every time he’d have a rally. I have a list three …

Reuters reports: With its modest selection of wooden chopping boards, beer glasses and coffee cups, the newly launched Bolsonaro Store website offers fans of the pugnacious former president the opportunity to invest in his political future and take home a Bolsonaro-branded commemorative keepsake. “Our dream is more alive than ever,” reads a wooden desk statuette that features Bolsonaro’s silhouette, available …

Politico reports: The DeSantis administration now requires events held at the Florida state Capitol to “align” with its mission, a recent change that is sparking concerns that the governor’s office is trying to censor events it doesn’t like. The Department of Management Services, the administration department that oversees state facilities, over the past few months has changed rules for groups …

“Look at what they are doing in the West. They distort historical facts, do not stop their attacks on Russian culture, on the Russian Orthodox Church. The West is perverting the family, the national identity. “They are making pedophilia the norm in their lives, and priests encourage same-sex marriage. Forgive them Father, they know not what they do. “The Anglican …

“Too much power has accumulated in DC and the result is a detached administrative state that rules over us and imposes its will on us. While there are a host of things that need to be done to re-constitutionalize government, parceling out federal agencies to other parts of the country could help reduce the negative effects of this accumulation of …

Rolling Stone reports: The former president, if re-elected, is still committed to expanding the use of the federal death penalty and bringing back banned methods of execution, the sources say. He has even, one of the sources recounts, mused about televising footage of executions, including showing condemned prisoners in the final moments of their lives. Specifically, Trump has talked about …