Three years ago I interviewed a Hungarian constitutional law professor, Gabor Halmai. He had been in Israel to observe and to admire our pro-democracy protests against the judicial “reform”. He told me then:

Israel is a model for Hungary. What is happening on the streets, the protests. The role of constitutional scholars, spreading the idea of constitutional democracy, the importance of protecting this democracy. Nothing similar has happened in Hungary in the past 13 years.

Israel is a model for Hungary. What is happening on the streets, the protests. The role of constitutional scholars, spreading the idea of constitutional democracy, the importance of protecting this democracy. Nothing similar has happened in Hungary in the past 13 years.

He told me he’d been brought to tears seeing ordinary Israelis demonstrating to protect what he feared Hungary had already lost.

The morning after Hungary’s election two weeks ago, I wrote to congratulate him. Viktor Orban’s “illiberal democracy” was over – despite Orban’s control of 90 percent of the media, and his effective political capture of both the constitutional court (in many respects the model for Netanyahu’s and Yariv Levin’s “reforms”) and the Election Commission (which Prof. Halmai had sat on until experts like him were replaced by political appointees.)

But perhaps it is now time for us Israelis to learn from the Hungarians?

When I saw the news today that........

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