The Who Is Who of Hungarian Politics. Let’s get to know the most influential Hungarian political parties – an overview before the elections

2014 is an important year for Hungary, since both the Hungarian and the European Parliamentary elections will be held in the spring. The parliamentary election will take place on April 6. As time goes by, more and more posters with different slogans and “nice” pictures of politicians will appear on every corner of the streets all over Budapest. Therefore, it might be useful especially for the non-Hungarian speaking CEU community to be able to identify the different political parties which run for elections and also, to get to know a little what political program they offer for the citizens. This article gives a very brief summary about the four major political parties and/or party coalitions preparing for the spring elections.

FIDESZ – Hungarian Civic Alliance

This is the largest Hungarian political party, which ideologically is considered conservative. Their greatest ally is the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) with which Fidesz jointly runs for elections since 2006. Fidesz’s most significant politicians are Viktor Orbán, Tibor Navracsics (Vice PM and Minister of Justice), Péter Szijjártó (Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs), János Lázár (Secretary of State) and Zsolt Semjén (Vice PM). Initially, the party represented liberal views; however, in the mid-90s they changed their profile and started emphasizing the importance of family and Christian values with a conservative attitude. Fidesz won the elections in 1998 for the first and in 2010 for the second time. Their outlined program for the elections is yet to be announced, but most probably they intend to continue the same politics they have been carrying out in the past four years. This era was characterized by contested education reforms, price reduction of gas, water, etc. in households and constitutional reforms.

Preliminary surveys show that most probably Fidesz will win the upcoming elections again, thus starting their second “round” of governance until 2018.

Jobbik – Movement for Hungary

This is probably the most infamous Hungarian party of all, founded in 2002 by young university undergraduates. Jobbik was a social movement at the beginning, but later it has been transformed to a political party. Jobbik belongs to the group of extreme right-wing parties, being based on mainly conservative and nationalist values. Jobbik is best known for their often shocking acts and explicit (or implicit) radical views regarding ethnic and religious minorities of Hungary. Jobbik’s leading politicians are Gábor Vona (member of Parliament, head of party), Előd Novák (MP), Krisztina Morvai (Member of the European Parliament) and Dóra Dúró (MP, married to Novák). They have several electoral programs, such as the “Seven Chiefs Plan” (Hét Vezér Terv, named after the seven medieval leaders of Hungarian tribes who occupied the Carpathian Basin around the year 1000). This plan outlines different economic, political and social strategies, such as the renewal of mining industry in the country; the establishment of a “common, Polish-Hungarian-Croatian axis” for regional cooperation; and launching a strategy to facilitate housing for people. Jobbik’s strong electoral base consists of mainly young, graduated people.

The coalition of Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), Együtt 2014 (Together), Discussion for Hungary (PM), Democratic Coalition (DK) and Liberálisok (Liberals)

This is a freshly (January, 2014) formulated coalition by the socialist and other, small parties of the Hungarian political palette. The opposition decided to join their forces in order to remove the currently governing Fidesz party from power. However, several news articles doubt that the coalition could reach its purpose, since it is way too scattered to be able to formulate a common program. Moreover, it merges too many controversial politicians from the past ten years. For instance, Ferenc Gyurcsány, the leader of DK served as socialist prime minister from 2006 until 2009. He resigned as a result of a political scandal called the “Speech of Öszöd” back in 2006; therefore, his credibility in future politics is questionable. (The scope of the present article does not enable to elaborate more on this particular topic. For more information please, see the English wikiperida on him.)

The Together 2014 section is led by another, former head of government, Gordon Bajnai, who followed Gyurcsány as prime minister in 2009, after his resignation. Attila Mesterházy is the leader of the socialist party, Benedek Jávor is the head of PM and Gábor Fodor is the founder of the Liberals. The coalition will run a common list of their candidates at the election. Negotiations are still ongoing regarding the order of candidates in the list, as well as the electoral program, which is yet to be announced for the moment.

LMP (Politics can be Different)

This is the largest green party functioning in Hungary having been represented in Parliament since 2010. LMP faced many changes in the past few years, since several members of the party left, renounced their MP status and formed another political party, PM (Benedek Jávor is the founder, see above), independent from LMP. Now, the green party’s most significant members are András Schiffer (head of LMP), Katalin Ertsey (MP), Ágnes Osztolykán (MP, expert on Roma issues) and Bernadett Szél (MP). LMP strongly promotes the participation of women in politics. The party’s program consists mainly of the following elements: promoting equal opportunities for national and ethnic minorities; ensuring financial transparency in economic, political and social policy-making processes; creating a sustainable agricultural program in rural areas, while preserving natural resources (e.g. water, land, etc.); improving food security mechanisms; and building up cooperation with Europe in a democratic and sustainable way.

  It is hard to tell for the moment how many seats will each party obtain at the upcoming elections. Therefore, it is useful to read and listen to news about the results of the latest polls measuring the Hungarian society’s willingness to vote, as well as their party preferences. Also, it will be the first instance this year that Hungarian minorities living in neighboring countries (except Slovakia) will also cast their votes via post on parties’ national lists of candidates. The number of registered voters from neighboring countries reached 100 000 by January, 2014, and forecasts estimate that this number will double by the time of elections. The “weight” of their votes is approximated at 2%, meaning they will decide on 2-3 parliamentary seats.*

  Overall, the current political situation is very exciting and without precedent, since this is the first time Hungarians cast their votes in a new, simplified electoral system. The competition is high and chances are changing every day. We can only hope for the best, and decide rationally on whom we cast our votes in the polling booths.

Eszter Kajtár, Hungary, School of Public Policy

Images:  en.wikipedia.org and webpages of the respective parties