How Europe’s authoritarian populists maintain the illusion of a free press

By Fanni Toth, Postdoctoral Research Associate on POPBACK project , Loughborough University
Gerhard Schnyder, Professor of International Management & Political Economy, Loughborough University
Marlene Radl, PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science, Universität Wien

Authoritarian leaders might be good at damaging democracy, but unless they are pure dictators they often still need to worry about winning elections. In the last few years, Europe has seen the rise of a number of authoritarian populists who rely on winning mass support among ordinary people – as opposed to just rigging the vote.

In some cases they win with the help of successful or popular policies. In Hungary, for example – despite some…

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