1. An illiberal playbook Donald Trump’s return to the White House would seem to have set off an authoritarian avalanche in Europe, too. But this catastrophe is by no means an unexpected one: the breakdown of the rule of law and democratic principles has not been sudden, and neither are its origins to be found solely overseas. In face, parties such as Hungary’s Fidesz, Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia and Lega, France’s Rassem­blement National, Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Poland’s Prawo i Sprawiedliwość(PiS) and Austria’s Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs(FPÖ) are mobilising an incessant diatribe against minorities and European politi­cal integration which is fragmenting European societies from within. “Mine is a cultural and ideological battle,” said French xen­ophobic right-wing politician Éric Zemmour as far back as 2011, marshalling, distorting and manipulating Gramsci’s cultural hegemony concept: “I have turned the left wing’s weapons against it. I have infiltrated the TV propaganda machine, mingling with actors, singers, and the people them­selves.” Using a network of think tanks as outposts from which to keep their connections and exchanges alive, Europe’s far right movements have experimented with tactics and shared strategies between them, thereby cementing a com­mon action plan. This illiberal playbook works like a batter­ing ram, gradually, blow by blow, year after year, changing the character of public debate, fragmenting our societies from within and occupying progressively greater space in the public domain. In March 2025, the Heritage Foundation – the Donald Trump-associated think tank known for drawing up the authoritarian Project 2025 plan – brought the exponents of Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Orban’s soft power machine, and the Polish Ordo Iuris institute, close to PiS and known for its work on the battle against abortion rights, together in Washington to discuss the‘Great Reset’. The Great Reset is not simply the title of a publication written by MCC and Ordo Iuris. It is, first and foremost, a plan to break up the European Union into its nation state components, and there is nothing surprising about the fact that the White House, whose president and vice-president are opposed to a united Europe, has taken up this opportunity. But another‘great reset’ is underway in the way public debate is structured, one which began more than 15 years ago. It is a reset based on a single starting point: enemy building. And understanding how this works requires us, first of all, to look at the man who has made illiberalism his trademark, the drift to authoritarianism his export sys­tem and anti-Brussels rhetoric his leitmotif: Viktor Orbán. An illiberal playbook 3