Hungary is a troubled place right now. The country’s increasingly authoritarian political system might not be making much in the way of headlines but it should be.

It was earlier this month on April 8 that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban secured his third consecutive mandate in office, even if nothing about his electoral victory felt right.

For a start, his venomous campaign blend of ultra-nationalistic and conservative anti-immigration rhetoric wrapped up in a barely concealed anti-Semitic conspiracy theory would not have been out of place in a fascist dictatorship.

Add to this a crackdown on a free press replaced by a government sponsored news machine pushing out its one note anti-migrant agenda, along with a deeply flawed and unfair electoral system, and Hungary no more resembles a democracy than Russia does right now.

In fact the parallels between the two countries don’t just end there. In a Hungarian economic marketplace dominated by oligarchs that have a cosy relationship with Mr Orban, an entire political apparatus has been funded that buys up media allies and supporters in much the same way that Russian President Vladimir Putin has done.

Voters might have had a wide range of political options in this month’s election, but intimidation, xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing, all “constricted the space for genuine political debate”.

That much was quickly confirmed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) watchdog that monitored the election.

As if all this was not bad enough, Mr Orban also had Europe’s most disproportionate electoral system working to his advantage.

Difficult as it is to comprehend but even though Mr Orban’s Fidesz party won only 48% of the popular vote, it now finds itself enjoying 67% of seats in parliament.

In fact more than 100,000 more Hungarians voted against Mr Orban on the party list vote than for his party. Yet, he will now enjoy a supermajority in parliament, which will allow him to amend the constitution without cooperation from the opposition.

Already Mr Orban is wasting no time in consolidating his grip on the country. No sooner had his election victory been secured, than he made it clear he would push on with legislation to crack down on organisations promoting migrant rights.

This is a politician after all who has projected himself as a saviour of Hungary’s Christian culture against Muslim migration into Europe.

Already wide-ranging steps are being put in place to dismantle any remaining political checks and balances and clamping down on civil society.

The latest casualty over the past few days has been George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, (OSF) who say they are now considering shutting down their office in Budapest if Mr Orban’s government passes a so-called Stop Soros law restricting activities of non-governmental organisations (Ngo’s).

Should this happen, it would mark another significant blow to civil society and freedom of expression in the country.

While the Budapest-born financier, political activist and author has long used his philanthropic groups to promote liberal values, Mr Soros has become a hate figure for nationalist and populist groups in multiple countries, and nowhere more so than in his birthplace of Hungary.

Critics of Mr Orban rightly warn that the departure of the OSF would mark a further milestone in a slide towards authoritarian rule and crack down on independent centres of thought and activism.

Looking on meanwhile is the EU which now finds itself with a real challenge on its hands if it’s to move to stop the Hungary’s political direction of travel and erosion of its democratic structures.

In its political arsenal the EU has a number of weapons at its disposal. Writing in an article on the European Council on Foreign Relations website recently, Chris Maroshegyi a director at global business strategy firm the Albright Stonebridge Group and a Fulbright scholar in Budapest, suggests the EU could start by targeting Orban’s oligarchs and financial supporters.

Brussels says Mr Maroshegyi “should use the upcoming negotiations on the EU’s post-2020 tranche of aid to member states to incentivise Orban to clean up his act”.

This might involve the EU’s anti-corruption agency, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

The EU’s nuclear option of course, invoking Article 7 sanctions and stripping Hungary of its voting rights requires unanimity from member states. The bloc could also include provisions in its long-term budget that would tie EU funds.EU aid accounts for up to 6% of Hungarian GDP but predominantly benefits a small circle of oligarchs.

However, passing the EU budget also requires unanimity. Poland, which faces similar threats, would almost certainly use its veto, but so too might other populist governments in Austria, and potentially in Italy, too.

For now Hungary is just the latest example in today’s Europe of how political engineering, ultra-nationalistic and conservative anti-immigration strategies help demagogues like Mr Orban to thrive.

Back in the late 1980s Viktor Orban was the poster boy of democratic transition, today he has become the latest of Europe’s current nationalist-populist nightmare leaders.

If there is good news in all of this then it’s that as analyst Chris Maroshegyi says, most Hungarians voted to end Mr Orban’s corrupt regime and are determined to live in a prosperous, democratic, and free member of the EU.

Right now more than ever the EU needs to stick together and defend its principles by using its soft power of pressure and incitements to prevent Hungary sliding further in the direction of authoritarianism

Just a few days ago tens of thousands of Hungarians took to the street of Budapest organised through a Facebook group called “We are the majority” to show their opposition to the re-election of Viktor Orban and express their disquiet at the country’s political drift. Their cause is one that should concern all Europeans of a liberal and democratic disposition and deserves our attention and support.