Introduction
On 7-9 June 2024 elections to the European Parliament were held in Hungary and in the another associate States of the European Union. The fact that in Hungary the coalition organization of conservative Fidesz and the Chadetic KDNP organization would win was predictable. However, no 1 expected the advanced score to be achieved by the fresh Hungarian political organization TISZA.
Fidesz and KDNP have ruled Hungary since 2010 and have since been a majority in the national parliament. In the last parliamentary election, the coalition took 135 out of 199 seats, giving Orbán the majority needed to push forward constitutional reforms [1].
2019 European Parliament elections
In 2019, i.e. in erstwhile elections to the European Parliament, FIDESZ won 52.5 percent of the votes and 13 seats in the Europarliament in dinner with KDNP. The Democratic Coalition (DK) achieved the second biggest score – 16.05 percent votes and 4 seats. In 3rd place the Momentum Movement ranked with a score of 9.93 percent votes and 2 seats. The last mandate was awarded to the MFA-Dialog Coalition, which won 6.61% of the vote.
European Parliament elections in 2024
In this year's elections to the EP, the FIDESZ-KDNP coalition besides won, as it won 44.8 percent of the vote, giving it 11 out of 21 seats. The second place with the consequence of almost 30% of the votes and 7 seats took TISZA, headed by Péter Magyar. TISZA left the long-running opposition parties behind. The DK-MSZP-Dialog coalition won 8% of the votes and 2 seats, and the last mandate was awarded to the Nationalist Movement Our Homeland [2].
All groups lost part of their support for the fresh Hungarian political party. FIDESZ lost almost 8 percent of the votes and 2 seats. The DK-MSZP-Dialog Alliance received only 8 percent of the votes and 2 seats, and the Momentum organization did not even exceed the electoral threshold.
Figure 1. Results of the 2019 Hungarian elections
Figure 2. Results of the European Parliament elections in Hungary in 2024.
Source: https://www.results.elections.europa.eu/en/national results/Hungarian/2024-2029/
Péter Magyar was in the past affiliated with the Hungarian government. He is besides a erstwhile husband of Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. who in February 2024, along with Hungarian president Katalin Novák, resigned after pardoning a man convicted for helping cover up a child's home sexual abuse case [3]. Following the outbreak of the Magyar pardon scandal, he gave an interview in which he powerfully criticized the government of Orban, accusing him, among others, of corruption.
From that minute on, it became public again about the TISZA party, which was formally registered as early as 2021, and candidates from her letter were to compete in the 2022 parliamentary election. However, given the party's approach to financing, this did not happen. The chairman, Attila Szabó, announced that the organization would self-finance and would not search state subsidies. However, the group did not rise adequate resources to run for election.
The leader of the TISZA organization is the hope for part of Hungary and the announcement of a fresh era in Hungarian politics. He is besides aware of this and Orban, who in a tv interview admitted that ,the elections were hard due to the fact that they had to overcome both the old and the fresh opposition.” According to the Prime Minister, the aim of these elections was to slow down and then halt the European train towards war. What he said was successful in Hungary, as it is clear from the results that the Hungarian public supported his government's efforts to exit the war [4]. According to Magyar, the election results are ,,Waterloo Orban's power and the beginning of its end” [5].
The consequence of the TISZA organization may surprise, given that the group was not registered in the EP election until 11 April. Magyar had respective months not only to conduct the campaign, but besides to prepare it. During this time, he organized a "March of Peace" – 1 of the largest demonstrations against the camp of power in years. It featured representatives of various generations – from young students and students, families with children, to pensioners. Tens of thousands of participants expressed their dissatisfaction with the current government policy, marching together across the streets of Budapest. At this demonstration Magyar presented his intention to make a organization to run for EP [6]. Throughout the campaign, he encouraged Hungarians to take part in the elections via Facebook. He besides published his party's program on it. The 12-point programme included requests specified as expanding social assistance or lowering VAT. Points focused mainly on improving the surviving conditions of citizens.
Prior to the elections, the first political debate on public tv in 18 years was held. The last specified event took place in 2006. The debate on the MTVA channel was attended by candidates for the EP from 11 different parties, including Peter Magyar. Despite popular belief among viewers that the debate was unfair and did not take place in specified a expression as if wanted, it is simply a hope for a fresh reality in which public tv can hear criticism directed towards the government [7].
Local elections
On 9 June, apart from the EP elections, local elections were held in which FIDESZ won. The organization scored the highest score in all 19 committees (administrative districts), and 15 of the 25 mayoral positions in the region cities were taken by persons starting from the FIDESZ letter. The president of Budapest remained Gergley Karácsony of the opposition organization dialog for Hungary [8]. His counter-candidate was Dávid Vitézy, erstwhile Deputy Minister of Transport in the Victor Orbán government. erstwhile the results were first announced, it turned out that Karácsony had won with only 342 votes. Vitézy challenged this consequence and demanded a recalculation of the votes. After re-checking the votes that were initially considered invalid, it turned out that Karácsony inactive has the majority, but this time it only leads by 41 votes. However, this consequence did not satisfy his counter-candidate, who demanded a 3rd vote count. erstwhile all the votes were recalculated, it turned out that by a majority of 293 votes Karáscone inactive leads. Vitézy yet accepted this result, the Hungarian National Election Commission (NVI) announced the election results, and Gergley Karácsony officially began holding the office of president of Budapest for the second time [9].
What happened after the election?
Peter Magyar announced that he would include a mandate in the EP, although he had previously announced that he would not. His decision argues that in this way he will be able to better aid his party, increase his influence on Hungarian politics and have a chance to become an crucial individual in the European People's organization (EPP), to which TISZA has joined [10].
Victor Orbán met with the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni and stated that FIDESZ would not join European Conservatives and Reformers. As a reason, he indicated the accession to the anti-Hungarian faction of the Romanian AUR party. The Prime Minister of Hungary announced the creation of a fresh right-wing group called Patriots for Europe (PdE) [11]. The group is an alliance of 3 parties – the Hungarian Fidesz, the Czech ANO movement and the Austrian Free organization (FPÖ). The Patriots became the 3rd largest group in the European Parliament [12].
Table 3. Parties forming part of the Patriots Group for Europe.
| Party | Country |
| National Unity | France |
| Fidesz/Christian Democratic People's organization (KDNP) | Hungary |
| League | Italy |
| ANO | Czech Republic |
| VOX | Spain |
| Freedom Party | Netherlands |
| Freedom organization of Austria | Austria |
| Flemish Interest | Belgium |
| Swear and Drivers | Czech Republic |
| Chega | Portugal |
| Voice of Reason | Greece |
| Danish People's Party | Denmark |
| Latvia at First Place | Latvia |
Source: own improvement based on: https://www.osw.waw.pl/publications/analysis/2024-07-23/patrioci-dla-europy-radical-right-under-egida-orbana
On 1 July, Hungary launched the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Budapest's priorities for the next six months are to fight illegal immigration, improve EU competitiveness and strengthen European defence policy [13]. The day after the presidency Victor Orbán began a series of abroad visits aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. He visited Kiev for the first time since the outbreak of the war and met Volodomyr Zelenski. The leaders discussed, among others, the rights of the Hungarian number in Zakarpacie, the Ukrainian-Russian war and ways of ending it. Orbán encouraged Kiev to suspend its arms, suggesting that this could velocity up peace negotiations [14]. 3 days after this visit, the Prime Minister of Hungary went to Moscow and met Vladimir Putin, because, as he himself claims, the intent of his ,,peace mission” is to know the positions of both fighting parties. This visit was criticised by Kiev and European politicians, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen [15]. Politicians accused him of not having a appropriate mandate to negociate with Russia on behalf of the European Union. Another halt was Beijing, where Orbán met Xi Jinping because, in his opinion, China is “a key force to accomplish peace between Russia and Ukraine” [16]. During the meeting, the president of China expressed hope that both sides of the conflict would sit in peace negotiations as shortly as possible. The Hungarian Prime Minister besides met with Donald Trump, with whom he spoke, about ways to Ukraine". In his social media, he called the gathering ,,peace mission 5.0”, claiming Trump would solve this problem [17].
Budapest is presently facing the consequences of a decision taken in early July. It afraid the extension of the visa mitigation programme for third-country nationals, including Belarus and Russia. The Hungarian work visa programme, the alleged National Charter, allows third-country nationals to decision within the Schengen area and work in Hungary for 2 years without peculiar permits and documents. Euro MPs request that Budapest be held accountable by proposing to suspend Hungary's membership in the Schengen area and by suggesting that associate States do not recognise Hungarian visas and introduce controls on the country's playing. The Euro MPs' appeal argues that Hungary's decision to liberalise government for the Russians and Belarusians could jeopardise the functioning of the Schengen area and affect the safety of citizens [18].
Conclusion
The biggest losers of the EP elections are the groups that be on the Hungarian political scene much longer than TISZA. The opposition parties DK-MSZP-Dialog and the Nationalist Movement Our Homeland combined only 3 mandates [19].
The election results show the increasing discontent of Hungarians with Orbán's policy. Fidesz lost 2 seats in the EP and 8 percent points in support of the organization present on the political phase for respective months. They besides start a fresh beginning in the country's policy. Magyar will surely not slow down in his efforts to dominate Fidesz. He will have the chance to do so in the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held in the autumn of 2026. However, we inactive gotta wait to verify the possible force of the group.
Orbán, on the another hand, uses the Hungarian Presidency of the EU to make its image as the only leader in the EU who can talk to both sides of the conflict – Moscow and Kiev, and to make the appearance that it represents the full European Union. His actions face strong criticism from European politicians and have sparked discussion in the EU on how to deal with Hungary through the remainder of the Presidency, which ends on 31 December 2024 [20].
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