Hungary's record on democracy slid further last year, US research group Freedom House said Wednesday, as it faulted the conduct of elections in which right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban again triumphed.
In its annual report Nations in Transit on countries from the former Soviet bloc, Freedom House said that Hungary's rating deteriorated more than that of any country except Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.
Hungary's parliamentary elections "were rife with irregularities, abuses of administrative resources and media distortions," said the annual report by Freedom House, which receives US government funding but is run independently.
"Government-backed smear campaigns against critical NGOs and members of the National Judicial Council -- considered to be Hungary's last reservoir of judicial independence -- demonstrated the Orban regime's deepening intolerance of dissenting voices," it said.
The report contrasted Hungary's trajectory with that of Poland, where Freedom House again said that the ruling party showed "contempt for liberal democracy" including by the education ministry's choices in funding.
But Polish voters will have more electoral freedom, the report said, as it hailed Warsaw for its welcome to millions of Ukrainian refugees and championing of a tough European line against Russia.
Freedom House ranked Hungary as 43 percent democratic, down from 45 percent a year earlier, while Poland was stable at 59 percent. Russia crashed from five percent to just two percent.
Estonia received the highest score at 83 percent, followed closely by Latvia, Slovenia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
(With agencies)
