Fields of Power

Episode 4: Land & Democracy

In the final episode of Fields of Power, we step back from the land grabbing cases we've traced across Hungary and ask a deeper question: what does land have to do with democracy? Episode 4: Land & Democracy Péter and Ian begin on a small farm outside Budapest, where Katalin, an agroecological farmer, is experimenting with another way of living and growing food. Her garden is not just about vegetables, but about community, care, and reimagining what farming and life might look like beyond profit, fear, and extraction. From community-supported agriculture to seed saving and open gates, her story offers a glimpse of an alternative future rooted in local cooperation rather than control. From there, a bigger picture emerges. Drawing together voices from across the series – Éva and Logan, organic farmers, Noémi the researcher – we explore how land grabbing, EU agricultural subsidies, and the concentration of land in the hands of politically connected elites undermine democratic life. Democracy, which is not just about elections or institutions, but about relationships: to land, to food, to one another, and to the possibility of living without fear. This episode challenges the idea that Hungary is an exception. Instead, it asks what its story reveals about Europe as a whole and about the fragile ties between land, power, and democracy… everywhere. This is not an ending wrapped in easy optimism. It is a call to pay attention, to question systems that concentrate power, and to recognise that the struggles over agriculture fields are also struggles over our collective future.

Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles

Episode 2 of Fields of Power moves from the aisles of a Hungarian supermarket into the hidden machinery of a political-economic system where land, food, and power are tightly intertwined. Péter and Ian begin by tracing the products of powerful political-economic elites – Hungary's oligarchs – whose companies dominate everything from dairy to wine. But the question they pursue is bigger: how did land become the key to their power, and why does it matter for Hungary's future? Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles Episode 2 shows how oligarchs and their allies used state-engineered land auctions to accumulate vast tracts of farmland, a process made highly profitable by EU subsidies that reward ownership rather than cultivation. Drawing on the investigations of former state secretary József Ángyán, it reveals how fields intended for family farmers were channelled instead to regime loyalists. Through Ángyán's story – his widespread recognition in the countryside, his disillusionment inside the government, and the retaliation he faced after exposing corrupt government practices– the episode traces the mechanics of a system designed to concentrate land in political hands. But it also turns to the people living with the consequences. Éva, the organic farmer from Kishantos, recalls how the promise of family farm-oriented reform collapsed into what she describes as organised robbery. Noémi Gonda, a university researcher helps unpack why land is not just another asset but a form of power that shapes food security and democratic life. And Logan, an organic farmer and agroecology advocate, explains how subsidy-driven land ownership encourages monoculture and mega-farms while pushing out those who actually care about the soil. What emerges is more than a story about property: it's about how land grabbing undermines democracy, weakens food sovereignty, blocks climate-resilient farming, and shapes the future of Hungary and Hungarians.

Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary

In Episode 3 of Fields of Power, we head out onto Hungary's great plains in search of people living through the country's land battles. What we find is a landscape marked not just by farmers without land, but by fear. Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary We meet István, a shepherd in his seventies whose life was upended when his grazing land was handed to a politically connected newcomer – setting off a chain of intimidation and violence that still haunts him. His story leads us to others: the farmers of Kishantos, like Ferenc and Éva, who faced threats, assaults, and the destruction of their life's work for resisting unfair land deals. And in a village beside the prime minister's childhood home, we learn about András Váradi, the "truth-telling shepherd" who fought the system until the night he died under circumstances many believe were never properly investigated. As we travel through rural Hungary, we hear how these struggles are kept out of local newspapers, how journalists are discouraged from reporting, and how intimidation shapes everyday life. Noémi Gonda, a Hungarian researcher reflects on how deeply violence and fear have become embedded in the regime's hold over the countryside. Yet this episode is also about resistance: the stubborn refusal of farmers, activists, and ordinary villagers to be silenced. Their stories reveal not only what is happening to Hungary's land, but what is happening to its democracy.

Episode 1: Of Farms & Fortune

What looks like a dispute over farmland turns out to be something much larger. Episode 1 of Fields of Power begins with the story of Kishantos, an organic farm south of Budapest and opens into a wider investigation of land grabbing, power, and the rise of authoritarian politics in Hungary. Episode 1: Farms & Fortune Fields of Power begins at Kishantos, a once-celebrated organic demonstration farm and folk school in rural Hungary. In this episode, we follow the story of Éva Ácsné, who spent decades building a model of ecological farming, education, and community, only to see the land seized and crops destroyed after a government land tender handed the fields to politically connected newcomers. Through Éva's experience, we open up a bigger story: how the privatisation of state-owned agricultural land in the 2010s helped consolidate authoritarian power around Hungary's ruling elite. We hear how land – once imagined as the basis of sustainable livelihoods and local democracy – became a tool for wealth accumulation, patronage, and political control. Alongside Éva's testimony, investigative journalist Gabriella Horn helps us trace how Hungary's farmland moved from state cooperatives to private hands, and how EU agricultural subsidies made land ownership itself extraordinarily profitable – even without farming it. What happened in Kishantos is not just a local tragedy. It reveals how struggles over land use and ownership matter for democracy, and how democracy can literally erode from the ground up. This episode sets the stage for the series' central questions: What happens when control over the land shifts away from communities? And how does this loss help fuel the rise of illiberal, right-wing and authoritarian politics?