Hungary
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Hungary Heading Towards Two-party Competition?
Hungarian politics has been dominated by Fidesz for 15 years. Gergely Rajnai’s analysis explains why the challenge of the emerging Tisza Party might push Hungary towards a two-party system.
Stability, Strength, Traditions
Hungary does not have a tradition of early elections.The demand for them is nevertheless high. Zoltán Novák’s analysis on why this topic dominated public discourse at the beginning of the year.
Path Dependency in Education
Why is education crucial in building a democratic country? Róbert Kiss’s analysis highlights the essential role of education in strengthening democratic norms, using the example of a new Hungarian film to explore these issues.
The impact of Trump’s victory on Hungary
What can the Hungarian government expect from a second Trump presidency? Analysis by Gergely Rajnai attempts to find answers to that question drawing from what Trump did after his victory and how the first Trump administration handled relations with Hungary.
EP elections
Julia Lakatos spoke about the causes of the high voter turnout at the EP and municipal elections in Telex‘s live election coverage.
Interpreting Orbán
Gergely Rajnai analyzed Viktor Orbán’s foreign policy approach on Al Jazeera’s Newshour.
Loyalty, populism and football
The Unpopulist magazine published Magyar Hang’s compilation of Fidesz fanatics, in which Ádám Paár explained that for many voters, belonging to the party is like a sports club: identity matters.
The transformation of the Hungarian opposition?
The fact that the Hungarian opposition was not able to win elections for the past twelve years makes it unique within East-Central Europe. But why is the opposition so weak, and what are its possibilities for the future? Ervin Csizmadia’s analysis.
Between two worlds
Talking to Al Jazeera, Gergely Rajnai described the foreign policy of Viktor Orbán as attempting to bridge the gap between East and West, but noted that the war in Ukraine makes this approach less and less tenable.
What happened in Hungary?
The 2022 Hungarian elections ended with an unexpected twist. Fidesz not only hung on to its majority but managed to receive a 2/3 supermajority for the fourth consecutive time. CFPA’s analysis of the outcome.
War and elections
Gergely Rajnai spoke to ARD about the effects of the Ukraine conflict on Hungarian elections.
Fidesz dominance
Why has the same party won elections in Hungary for more than 12 years? CFPA’s new book looks at this question from a comparative and a historical perspective.
An electoral challenge?
Julia Lakatos spoke to Radio Free Europe about the reasons why the opposition parties rallied behind a conservative major to run against Viktor Orbán.
How to carry out a primary election?
Gergely Rajnai spoke to Le Figaro, emphasizing that primaries are a novelty in Hungarian political culture, therefore all the actors involved have to learn how to take part in the process.
Realignment on the right
Zoltán Novák spoke to Reuters about the possible new Italian, Polish, Hungarian alliance within the EU, highlighting that despite their differences such an alliance could be a force to be reckoned with.
Orbán, the West, and Perspectives for Atlanticism
The rhetoric of the Orbán-government has led to several high profile critiques lately. These may be exaggerated, nevertheless they mirror a widespread international sentiment according to which Hungary is no longer a democracy. Ervin Csizmadia looks at the causes of this narrative.
Hammering out a deal
Who’s Victory?
Ádám Vermes spoke to Balkan Insight concerning lex-CEU, highlighting that while the EU court’s decision is a legal victory for the university, the political victory was reaped by the government.
Rule of Law Report
Harsh words for Hungary in the EUs new Rule of Law Report, nevertheless the aim doesn’t seem to be to escalate the conflict, said Júlia Lakatos to Balkan Insight regional news portal.
After EU summit
Culture Wars?
The declaration a culture war, or rather the equivalent of conservative countercultural revolution has been an important element of Hungarian politics in 2019. This shouldn’t come as a surprise though. Julia Lakatos’s analysis goes behind the scenes of the evolution of the concept.
Hungary Divided
The municipal elections of Hungary have become exactly the game changing moment that the opposition had been waiting for. But what can they learn from the outcome?
Why We Support Debates
With less than a month to go before local elections in Budapest, Gergely Karácsony’s suggestion for a debate is being swept off the table by incumbent mayor István Tarlós. How could there be a debate, why should there be one, and what should it be about? CFPA’s position.
Visions of Europe
In our newest e-book we looked at the relationship between Hungary and Europe from five different perspectives; that of party programs, the press, education, political history and mentality.
How to win?
Attila Tibor Nagy analyzed the upcoming elections for Bloomberg stating: “the main question is whether Fidesz will win with a simple or constitutional majority”.
Soros as Influencer?
“For Orbán, but more importantly, for a lot of Hungarian voters, Soros represents external influence on domestic issues.” Gergely Rajnai explained the current campaign in Hungary for Vice News.
The Hungarian Ruse
There are many stereotypes and oversimplified statements about Hungary nowadays. One of these is that the authoritarian government is faced by an opposition that has a western mentality. Ervin Csizmadia gives a more nuanced explanation of this approach on Social Europe.
Understandable demands at the wrong time
Two weeks ago on Saturday, public sector employees demonstrated against the government’s planned austerity measures as a result of the global financial crisis. Our thoughts about the ongoing global and local trends in German at Budapester Zeitung.
Slovak-hungarian conflict
It was almost a sensation among both the Hungarian and Slovak public that the Prime Ministers of Slovakia and Hungary, Robert Fico and Ferenc Gyurcsány, were willing to hold official talks. This alone proves that the differences between Slovakia and Hungary are great. Our analysis in Budapester Zeitung in German.