When Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was released in 1999, noted film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “Until you see it, it’s a picture made for see-n-brew theaters.” When the sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo came out in 2005, Ebert was even harsher, describing it as “aggressively evil, as if he wanted to annoy the audience”.
Rob Schneider played the lead role of a tropical fish tank-cleaner-turned-gigolo. For the sequel, Schneider won a Golden Raspberry Award for “Worst Actor” and was nominated for “Worst Actor of the Decade” in 2010.
Some 15 years later, Schneider expected a resurgence in an even worse third installment of the Bigalow franchise, or another lowbrow Hollywood comedy. Instead, he appeared in a more unlikely setting: A campaign video Supporting Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Hungarian fans of Deuce Bigalow may have been surprised by Schneider’s entry into local politics, but it came out of nowhere.
Over the years, Schneider has worked to establish himself as a prominent conservative voice, standing up against Hollywood’s perceived liberal bias. A frequent guest on Fox News, he has spoken out publicly against diversity, equality and inclusion policies and is vocally anti-trans and anti-vaccine. In a recent op-ed, he claimed, “Since the rise of the ‘woke’ movement and its total dominance over the creative industries, anyone with a conservative viewpoint has been punished and even blacklisted.”
The video features Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Argentine President Javier Mille, France’s National Rally Jean-Marie Le Pen, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Lega Leader and German Parliament Leader Matteo Ali, and German Leader Alvina Salon. will split
Why would this global group of far-right figures care about Hungary’s political future? The answer lies in Hungary’s central role as an incubator for the global rise of far-right ideologies.
I saw the rise of the far right unfold firsthand in a Central European country. Within a week of moving to Budapest in 2008 to pursue my graduate studies at the Central European University (CEU), I was attacked by neo-Nazis. In the months that followed, during a severe financial crisis, I encountered many neo-Nazi rallies and gatherings.
There has been a sharp increase in violence targeting the country’s Roma population. In February 2009, a Roma man and his five-year-old son were shot and killed while fleeing their home, which had been set on fire, in a village outside Budapest. In September of that year, a Roma woman and her 13-year-old daughter were shot by armed men who had broken into their home in a village near the Ukrainian border. While the mother died, her daughter was admitted to the intensive care unit.
Anti-Semitism also increased in Hungary. In June 2009, disenfranchised desecrated the Holocaust memorial with pigs’ feet. The monument commemorates the Jewish victims who were shot and thrown into the Danube River by the Arrow Cross Party, a fascist militia, during World War II.
Against this backdrop of rising racist violence and far-right movements, Viktor Orbán, previously in office between 1998 and 2002, returned as prime minister in 2010. He was subsequently re-elected in 2014, 2018 and 2022, strengthening his grip on power. He used his electoral mandate to systematically seize control of state institutions and suppress opposition.
Under Orbán, press freedom has declined significantly. According to Reporters Without Borders, oligarchs close to Orbán’s Fidesz party bought media outlets and turned them into government mouthpieces. Currently, approximately 80 percent of the media in Hungary is concentrated in the hands of Orbán-friendly figures. Regulatory bodies have been weaponized to shut down independent media outlets. The government and pro-government media regularly accuse the Hungarian-born American financier George Soros of spreading disinformation and financing the Open Society Foundation.
State institutions and laws have also been weaponized to control academic institutions, civil society groups and cultural institutions that Orbán sees as obstacles to the country’s authoritarian far-right leanings. In 2018, the Soros-affiliated CEU, which Orban saw as a liberal bulwark, was forced to close most of its operations in Budapest and relocate to Vienna after the Orban government refused to sign an agreement allowing it to operate as a degree-awarding university in Hungary.
In 2019, the Hungarian parliament passed a bill that allowed the Orbán government to take control of the 200-year-old Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This was the first step towards the inclusion of 15 scientific institutions in the Eotvos Lorand Research Network (ELKH), led by a board appointed by Orbán. The formal justification for the move was to “boost funding and efficiency in Hungary’s underperforming research and development sector”, but critics said it was another way for the government to suppress opposition.
According to civil society groups, artistic freedom and cultural institutions have also come under attack. Orbán has used his “cultural approach” to advance his anti-democratic agenda, well aware that cultural and artistic spaces can play a “role in advancing pluralist political discourse”. These included centralized control of the National Culture Fund and the National Cultural Council, as well as the appointment of Fidesz-friendly administrators to head the Petofi Museum of Literature and the National Theatre. Interestingly, before his dismissal, the artistic director of the National Theater was publicly reprimanded by the Orbán government “for his political views and his homosexuality”.
More recently, the Orbán government established the “Sovereignty Protection Office” (SPO) to investigate critical journalists and civil society groups under the pretext of combating threats to national sovereignty. Justifying the establishment of the SPO, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Mate Kossis said, “We want to anger left-wing journalists, fake citizens and dollar politicians.”
As the Orbán government’s efforts to consolidate right-wing control continue at home, elsewhere around the world, its tactics are being prepared. Success in Hungary has served as an inspiration for other far-right autocrats who see Orbán as the prime mover to establish a conservative utopia, with the far-right dominating all aspects of political, social, cultural and economic life.
The Orbán leadership takes this role seriously as an inspiration to others and a far-right motivator. Well-funded Hungarian think tanks such as the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) are moving in Brussels to bring the Orbán-brand of xenophobia, transphobia and climate skepticism into the political mainstream in the European Union. The MCC claims it is creating an alternative conservative agenda and political culture that challenges “centrist views on public life”.
This agenda is particularly evident in the conference “Battle for the Soul of Europe” organized by MCC Brussels. The event brought together right-wing politicians, academics, public intellectuals, literary figures and journalists from across Europe, along with prominent American conservative thinkers and commentators.
Hungary also plays a curious role for conservatives around the world as a way to “disseminate knowledge”. Through visiting fellowships, book talks, and public panel discussions, organizations like MCC, the Hungarian Foundation, and the Danube Institute in Budapest are nurturing a globally connected intelligence working toward a conservative future.
Indeed, today Hungary has become an important pit stop for globe-trotting conservatives from Nigel Bigger to Jordan Pietersen and Tucker Carlson. In 2026, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will return to Hungary for the fifth time.
The announcement of the 2026 edition of CPAC Hungary proudly proclaims, “We were Trump before Trump, and at CPAC Hungary, the key phrase: ‘No migration! No gender! No war!’ spoke first. It has become official policy in the United States.
As the author of The World on the Right: Radical Conservatism and the Global Order Arguably, the global nature of the far right is well established. Yet, in this interconnected movement, Orbán’s Hungary has played a decisive role. For the first time since 2010, Orbán will face a tough challenge from his opponents, according to recent polls. Orbán’s right-wing friends around the world know this and are coming to the defense of this right-leaning global first mover.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.