BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As a young politician, Viktor Orban won plaudits for championing civil rights and free elections. Now as Hungary’s prime minister, Western nations are alarmed at the way he is trying to consolidate power, including a government crackdown on rights groups.

One of the groups being targeted is the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, which Orban himself relied on in 2007 to get him acquitted of defamation charges.