By Eugene Gioni
Yesterday Hungarians went to vote for their new leader for the coming years, Victor Orban or Peter Magyar. At media everything seemed like a big win of the opposition but for me, it’s a big loss of right wing ideology and another shot of Trumpism during elections.
At media worldwide we see the win of Magyar as something great. The young politician, from the oppositional party that won Orban after 16 years of rule. Is this true? I would not say.
Peter Magyar, cannot be seen as an opposition leader, rather than a copy paste of Fidesz with some differences that he promises. He was never officially member of Fidesz but was very close to the party having many governmental positions, from 2010 till 2024, 14 years in total. He held executive roles in state-owned financial institutions, was a legal and EU-related advisor and had many board positions in government-linked organizations. Being also married to Judit Varga, former minister of Justice, one of the most strong icons of Fidesz and government of Orban, Magyar can be said that was from the few people in the inner governmental circle for all these years.
He has a lot of common political ideological connections with Fidesz as we saw during the electoral campaign, such as strict border control, rejection of large-scale immigration into Hungary and he frames migration as a security and cultural issue but he is more EU friendly.
Therefore we cannot say that Magyar brings something new and promising, rather that he is an insider that left, created his own party, that promises anti-corruption and governmental transparency with Fidesz ideological political similarities.
Viktor Orban saved Hungary during the biggest immigration crisis, revived the European architectural design at construction projects in Budapest but now we have to wait and see the results that Magyar will deliver.
On top of this, we need to discuss is the influence of Trumpism during these elections. Victor Orban is seen by the president himself as the political leader that has to be followed as an example from the other countries. He is very much embraced about his policies towards immigration and leftist policies. JD Vance, came as well to support Fidesz but apparently with no result.
The big hope of the right wing parties, that would change the world and Europe, after the win of Donald Trump and the European elections, were Fidesz of Viktor Orban formed the second largest EU party in the parliament, with 84 seats, Patriots for Europe, making the right wing parties the majority, combined with the win of some right wing parties, on national level, all around Europe, seemed to be promising. Today this dream is in distress.
This is the result of many reasons but two are the main ones, there is no institutional collaboration between the European right wing parties and Trump is seen as a big bully from them Europeans. If Trump, as a right wing global leader, is not willing to invest in institutions and political cooperation, between the USA and the European right wing movement, having as well a more friendly approach towards the European countries, more losses will be coming from this side.