Illiberal Democracy and EU Law: Is There Such a Thing as “Illiberal Democracy” and Is it Compatible with EU Membership?

Hungary’s Prime Minister since 2010 has long defended the transformation of Hungary into an “illiberal democracy,” the first of its kind in the European Union. In September 2022, for the first time in the history of the EU, the European Parliament adopted a resolution which concluded that Hungary had ceased to be a democracy to become an electoral autocracy. This paper will show that “illiberal democracy” is merely a euphemism for authoritarian practices and as such, “illiberal democracy” is fundamentally incompatible with EU membership from an ontological, legal, and practical standpoint.