Hungarian Conservative

The majority of Hungarians agree with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government in not supporting Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as President of the European Commission. The vote in the European Parliament will take place on Thursday, 18 July, but it is far from certain that the current president will secure the 361 votes needed for re-election.

While Vitézy led for a long time, the mayoral elections ended up in Karácsony’s favour. Fidesz took the expected 11 Parliamentary seats.

‘It does have some positive effect to see political opponents act so civilly with each other. However, it also subtracted from the entertainment value of the debate; and the performances were less persuasive as well, less likely to have enough impact to change somebody’s vote.’

Concerned parents wrote an open letter to the local government, demanding that the head of the kindergarten be suspended until the conclusion of the police investigation, in fear that the opposition-led leadership might try to squash the scandal ahead of the municipal elections in June.

In the year 2023, a political mechanism was broken in Hungary: even downturns and runaway inflation could not dramatically alter the balance of political power.

After Viktor Orbán delivered his address at Tusványos, opposition parties did not hesitate to slam the PM and the speech.

Gergely Karácsony’s 99 Movement received over 650 million HUF in funding, mostly after they went inactive with the Budapest Mayor dropping out of the primary race for prime minister. The organisation claims that the bulk of its revenue came from ‘microdonations’ collected in cash in drop-boxes at live events. However, even opposition media admit that this is more than unrealistic given the large sum, and the fact that much of it came in foreign currencies.

There are two models of opposition—one that is based on cooperation and one that is based on absolute rejection. While democracies are characterised by cooperation between the ruling and opposition parties, out-of-power parties in Hungary are unwilling to cooperate with the ruling coalition, which results in their ineffectiveness.

After reviewing the energy situation at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the government determined that all necessary resources are at its disposal to keep in place the utility cost reduction programme for households with average energy consumption.

MSZP’s poor performance in the 2022 elections has led to a wave of resignations and internal conflict. Many within the party have called for a change in leadership and a new direction for the party.

The MEP reacted to Ferenc Gyurcsány’s statements made in a radio interview. Deutsch declared that the Democratic Coalition President had publicly admitted that as opposed to his and the European Commission’s claim that there were legal problems between Hungary and the European Union, or that the European Union development funds owed to Hungary had been withheld due to legal issues for years, was a lie.

Both Nézőpont Intézet, typically associated with the governing party, and Medián, generally viewed as closer to the opposition, put Fidesz ahead of the strongest opposition party, the Democratic Coalition (DK), by over 35 percentage points.

Hungary‘s supreme court ruled that MTI had the right to refuse to publish statements from the Democratic Coalition, and that the Act on Media Services and Mass Communication does not guarantee anyone carte-blanche to demand publication of a specific statement via MTI’s service.

Criticising the draft resolution submitted by Fidesz and the Christian Democrats, DK deputy group leader Gergely Arató told an online press conference that his party’s proposal focused on the interests of the Hungarian people ‘and what a responsible government should do in the current situation’. Fidesz responded promptly.