On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe Issue no. 26/2018 95 VIKTOR ORBÁN - FIRST AMONG ILLIBERALS? HUNGARIAN AND POLISH STEPS TOWARDS POPULIST DEMOCRACY Dr. Bartosz M. Rydliński Silesian University in Opava bmr59@georgetown.edu DOI:10.24193/OJMNE.2018.26.07 Abstract: The main aim of the article is to examine a new phenomenon which we witness in Central Europe, namely the illiberal shift. The significant victory of Viktor Orbán in 2010 has determined a new era not only in Hungarian but also in European politics. Basic rules and principles of liberal democracy in Hungary have been deeply weakened. The attack on the separation of powers, the rights of the opposition, independence of public institutions are only few examples of the current illiberal matrix used by Fidesz's government in Hungary, but also Law and Justice in Poland. Importantly, this paper analyses the correlation between the transition process of the early 1990s and the current conservative and declarative anti-neoliberal revolution in the region. Readers of this article could also discover some links with even more illiberal political practices applied by the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Keywords: illiberal democracy, populism, Hungary, Poland, Orbán Poles and Hungarians have long shared a special relationship. The shared proverb: “Poles and Hungarians brothers be, good for the sabre as well as for the (drinking) glass” (in Polish “Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki, i do szabli, i do szklanki”, in Hungarian “Lengyel, magyar – két jó barát, együtt harcol, s issza borát”) sums up the characteristics of the relations between the two societies revealing a centuries-long intimacy between them. The 20 th century bears witness to many events that reveal the existence of friendship between the two countries. They include Hungary’s refusal to attack Poland in 1939 while remaining in a political-military alliance with Nazi Germany, overlapping anti-Stalinist demonstrations in Warsaw and Budapest in 1956, and cooperation in 1989 when the whole Central and Eastern Europe became an arena of transition from real existing socialism to liberal democracy. Poland and Hungary joined NATO together in 1999 and the European Union five years later.