Balázs Orbán, who ran Viktor Orbán’s campaign in Hungary’s landslide election, has said the defeat will only boost the conservative nationalist Fidesz party in Brussels.
Orbán, who is not related to the outgoing prime minister, will come to Brussels in July to take up a seat as a member of the European Parliament, replacing Pál Szekeres.
“Since we are not in government, we have more time to focus on the politics of Brussels, so we will not disappear – quite the opposite,” Orbán said. Euractiv. “We’ll show up more often.”
It aims to provide intellectual inspiration and ballast for Fidesz as part of the Patriots for Europe group, which the Hungarians founded with France’s National Rally. “I hope that I will be able to play a role in more intellectual, broader philosophical debates, and I have a big network in Europe – not politicians, but mostly intellectuals, academic people.
Orbán was the campaign strategist, who made the dangers of the war in Ukraine central to his party’s bid to extend its unbroken 16-year streak in power. Fidesz tried to paint Péter Magyar, the leader of Tisza, as being in the pocket of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen.
Asked if the focus on Ukraine was the right move in a country with a history of Russian dominance, Orbán said: “From a campaign perspective, people obviously decided to accept the opposition’s offer, that’s why we lost.”
But he argued that Ukraine remains the “biggest issue” facing Europe. “What is the main priority of the EU? Whether Europeans should focus on supporting Ukraine by any means or whether they should prioritize their economic interests and the interests of European citizens,” he said.
Viktor Orban’s crushing defeat has also threatened the future of the state-backed conservative think-tank, Mathias Corvinus College (MCC), which is also active in Brussels. Magyar has threatened to cut its funding and bring it to a halt.
“(It) cannot be nationalized because we are not living in a communist dictatorship,” said Balázs Orbán. “They will try to cause us pain, but I think the conservative movement is strong; we have a lot of ideas, so I am quite optimistic that we will be visible in Brussels.”
Péter Magyar, Hungary’s leader-in-waiting who defeated Orban and Fidesz in a landslide victory on April 12, is in Brussels on Wednesday to try to unlock billions in EU subsidies withheld by the European Commission over rule of law concerns.
Orbán told the Reporter that Magyar was coming to Brussels hat in hand. “He was a Brussels-backed candidate, so now he is making deals with Brussels. My prediction is that they will sign up to the Brussels mainstream … (on migration, LGBT rights and Ukraine), there will be no independent Hungarian foreign policy.”
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