If there's a microcosm for what liberals in Brussels fear most about Hungary's future, it's Asotthalom.

A small village near the country's border with Serbia, it has a population of just 4,200 but has managed to make headlines across the world.

It was in November that its mayor, László Toroczkai, passed decrees prohibiting Muslims from wearing any Islamic garb in public and banning the opening of any mosque in the village.

In keeping with his right-wing nationalist Jobbik party's idea of "preserving Hungarian traditions", he went on to mimic Russian-style legislation by outlawing the "propagation of gay marriage" and public displays of affection among same-sex couples.

"No Muslims and no gays" effectively became the policy – punishable by fine – of a town in the heart of the European Union.

Were it not for the parallel actions of Hungary's radical right-wing government, Asotthalom would be dismissed as a blip on the continent.

But since Prime Minsiter Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party was elected to power with a two-thirds majority in 2010, it has been on a mission to kickstart what it calls an "illiberal" revolution to save Hungary from the EU - and even Europe from itself.

Inspired by the supposed successes of fellow illiberal states like Russia, Turkey, China, and Singapore, it's a mission that took centre stage during the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 when thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty crossed Hungary's border into the EU.

In a speech rallying against the "crime and terror" he said migrants brought to Europe, Orbán ignored Brussels' open door policy and erected fences, proposed migrant camps and promoted the country's own volunteer border patrol militia.

"Today Europe is as fragile, weak and sickly as a flower being eaten away by a hidden worm ... the masses arriving from other civilisations endanger our way of life, our culture, our customs and our Christian traditions," he told a crowd of supporters.

Given the slowness of other EU leaders to react to the crisis – and their subsequent but now withdrawn open-arms policy – Fidesz supporters believe Orbán has been vindicated by his border protection policy.

But the Hungarian leader has gone beyond anti-mass migration in his blueprint for a new kind of nativist, populist and Christian Hungary, one that puts nationalist goals ahead of the cosmopolitan agenda of raising individual liberty.

Orbán, a former liberal who gained prominence nationally with his fight to rid Hungary of Soviet troops while in his mid-20s, has been accused of using his time in power to dictatorially remove the checks and balances of democracy.

Since being elected seven years ago, he has passed a swathe of laws centralising control over the media, education and civil society, while also installing allies in key positions in the courts.