Daniel Nolan

Daniel Nolan/Budapest, Hungary

Daniel Nolan is a Budapest-based award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster from Manchester, England. His work on Hungary and CEE has appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle and numerous other outlets. He won a Foreign Press Association Award in 2018 and was named a European Press Prize laureate in 2016 and 2019.  

5 articles of type "Opinions" - Daniel Nolan:
Hungary’s Orban pushes ultra-conservative agenda at home and abroad
Hungary’s Orban pushes ultra-conservative agenda at home and abroad

Viktor Orban’s domestic “pro-family” policies made him a champion for the conservatives engaged in the so-called “culture wars”.

Daniel Nolan
25 Aug 2021
Black sheep of the (European) family. How Viktor Orban and Boris Johnson found success, and undermined the EU, by using the same populist playbook
Black sheep of the (European) family. How Viktor Orban and Boris Johnson found success, and undermined the EU, by using the same populist playbook

Boris Johnson and Viktor Orban share a way of doing politics: they’re both populists craving for the spotlight, ready to exploit in their favour the divisions of their respective societies. They also share an irreverence for the European Union. Johnson was one of the leading figures of the Leave camp, while Orban became a nuisance for Brussels as he kept on defying, time and again, the EU values and policies. The two seem to use the same recipe to consolidate their grip on power, so it only makes sense that their respective oppositions may eventually take similar paths.

Daniel Nolan
25 Jun 2021
As Orban looks further East, a new wind blows from Beijing to Budapest
As Orban looks further East, a new wind blows from Beijing to Budapest

Hungary’s plans to become a hub for eastern superpowers were widely mocked after Viktor Orban’s government’s “Eastern Wind” policy had to be renamed “Eastern Opening” after a party official noted that an eastern wind blows things everywhere except to the east. That hilarity turned to anger, however, when it emerged that China plans to build its first ever European university on the banks of the Danube by way of a EUR 1.5bn construction project that will be funded by Hungarian taxpayers.

Daniel Nolan
12 May 2021
Europe’s maverick politicians and the bear in the room
Europe’s maverick politicians and the bear in the room

After years of sparring with Brussels over his rule of law approach, which led to increased isolation for his Fidesz party, Hungary’s Viktor Orban decided to strike back by forging an alliance with Poland’s Law and Justice Party and Italy’s Lega. The plan was to start by setting-up a new party bloc within the European Parliament. However, this may prove to be easier said than done.

Daniel Nolan
13 Apr 2021
Vaccine geopolitics: Hungary’s expensive turn East
Vaccine geopolitics: Hungary’s expensive turn East

Facing political losses at home and in Europe, Viktor Orban also has to handle a devastating third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Hungarian Prime Minister has chosen to turn to Russia and China for help, two countries he has been entreating of late.

Daniel Nolan
25 Mar 2021
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