The inaugural meeting for the Digital Civic Circles (Digitális Polgári Körök, DPK) initiative took place at the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday, 20 September. 11,000 spectators attended the illustrious event, while the line-up of speakers featured, among others, MP Máté Kocsis, Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
PM Orbán’s Fidesz party has won four consecutive elections with a constitutional supermajority between 2010 and 2022. In 2024, they won the popular vote in the European Parliamentary elections by 15 points, and are heading to a victory in the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election as well. However, despite that, opposition leader Péter Magyar has been consistently outperforming Orbán in engagement on the social media site Facebook. That is why PM Orbán launched his DPK initiative, in an effort to convert his offline support into visible online support.
At the inaugural meeting, the Prime Minister lauded the massive live attendance, saying that his movement is starting to outgrow all conference rooms and sports arenas, and added that: ‘We are growing by the hundreds and thousands day by day.’
Fidesz’s electoral success is mainly fueled by the rural vote in Hungary, while the liberal opposition’s stronghold is the capital city of Budapest—which also in part explains Magyar’s advantage on social media. On that matter, PM Orbán has stated: ‘We will never give up on Budapest. We will never accept that liberals and the TISZA Party will turn our national capital into a paradise for “migrant-huggers”, drug users, and LGBTQ people.’
PM Orbán then went on to say that, whether we like it or not, the life, quality of life, and happiness of every Hungarian generation, for centuries, have depended on how Hungary navigates its ship through the waves created by empires. He reminded all that his grandparents’ generation had been unfortunate in experiencing not one but two turning points in history: World War I and the loss of their country, then World War II and communism.
‘When I thought about my own life, I imagined that I was born in a defeated country, but I would die in a victorious one. I thought that we would make Hungary great,’ the Prime Minister told the audience.
However, he also clarified that he does not mean victory in war. The Hungarians want peace, and in peacetime, victory has different meanings for different nations, he stressed. ‘If you are born Hungarian, victory means the ability to change the fate bestowed upon you by others,’ he elaborated.
As for the European Union, PM Orbán has stated: ‘The hull of the European Union ship could not withstand the blows and broke, water is pouring in,’ and that the EU has already fallen on its side, overshadowed by the financial crisis, migration, war and other upheavals. The European leaders have been proven to be Lilliputians, and ‘Lord Weber and his surrogates’ have turned the European Union into a mess of bankruptcies. He compared European leadership to a faulty GPS that constantly recalculates but never reaches its destination. In addition, he declared that the Hungarian migrant policy is better than the European, as Hungary managed to stay a ‘migrant-free country’.
‘The Hungarian migrant policy is better than the European, as Hungary managed to stay a “migrant-free country”.’
The Prime Minister has also emphasized that we must unequivocally tell Brussels that we reject the path they are offering us, because it curtails our sovereignty, leads us into war, forces us to do things we do not want to do, and dictates how we should live. He warned that if Hungary follows the path set out by Brussels, Hungarian taxpayer money will end up in Ukraine, and that path would mean higher corporate taxes, higher income taxes, and cuts to family tax credits.
The Prime Minister has announced at the event that a total of 72,000 people have joined the Digital Civic Circles thus far, in addition to the 46,000 who have joined the ‘Fight Club’, a similar digital involvement initiative started by Fidesz earlier; and that Fidesz will be holding its traditional Peace March on 23 October in Budapest, the national holiday commemorating the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
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