The liberal Momentum party will learn the lessons from Fidesz’s crushing election victory in April and fight harder for a pro-European Hungary says Katalin Cseh, Momentum MEP and party board member, in an interview with EURACTIV.
The defeat at the hands of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz in April’s general election, Orbán’s fifth win in a row, was a particularly bitter pill for the Hungarian opposition alliance, United for Hungary, to swallow.
Despite banding together political parties ranging from the conservative Jobbik to the green and socialist parties, United for Hungary only secured 37% to Fidesz’s 52%, a result which maintained the governing party’s two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
The defeat is still a painful subject for Momentum and Cseh. But she insists that the party will not abandon its values – and instead, focus on taking its message to every Hungarian. “We have to have a strong voice in the smallest communities,” she says, adding that this means being “in every market hall and talking truth to power.”
“It’s still very difficult to talk about this because we spent so much time campaigning on the road, trying to bring hope to the people. I am afraid for the soul of the country. I honestly though that we could make a U-turn on where the country is going, but it was very clear that we need to do more,” Cseh told EURACTIV.
Founded in 2016, and a predominantly young, liberal, pro-European party modelled on French President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche, Momentum won ten parliamentary seats in May, its first elected representatives in the National Assembly in Budapest. It is seen by many observers in Hungary as the only opposition party that managed to come out of the defeat without losing face.
The April poll has underscored the scale of the task of eating into Fidesz’s electoral base.
“We need to fine tune our messages and focus on the freedom that we still have left in this country to really get to the hearts and minds of every single Hungarian,” said Cseh, pointing to the positive and rapid gains made by her party which has held two MEP seats since 2019.
“The fact that over the six years of Momentum now we managed to break into parliament, have a parliamentary group, means we have a platform to speak the values of truth and freedom. We just had new internal elections. We are determined to keep going forward even though times have never been as hard as they are now,” she told EURACTIV.
However, political necessity is likely to ensure that the opposition parties follow a similar path of uniting in a grand coalition at the next general elections.
“Unless there is a radical change in our electoral law, which I do not see coming, we have to contest the next general elections as a coalition,” says Cseh.
“What is important is what message this coalition sends out the loudest. I still believe that individual freedoms and civil rights and a strong determination for Europe can be the best for Hungary. Even though the propaganda and oligarchic system tries to kill off freedom of discussion and dissenting voices we will be loud.”
“What is in our heart and values will remain the same. We will keep on fighting for Europe, equal rights, sustainable climate and a corruption-free country,” she says.
“There is potential for Hungary to be a prosperous, free and welcoming European country…and the way forward is not Fidesz.”
In the meantime, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been among the most cautious EU leaders in adopting sanctions against Russia and offer political and military support to Ukraine. However, Cseh insists that his attitude towards Ukraine is not reflective of the Hungarian people.
“The best public opinion for Hungary is the Hungarian people’s stance on the war and how we welcomed Ukrainian refugees who are our neighbours and fled a terrible, illegal, genocidal war,” Cseh told EURACTIV.
Since Russia’s invasion on 24 February, almost one million people have passed through Hungary from Ukraine.
“It was not the government that welcomed them. For a long time, they did not do anything,” says Cseh.
“The towns at the Hungarian border are among the poorest communities in Hungary and many people struggle to pay their bills at the end of the month. But yet they welcomed families into their homes, cooked for them and housed them. We banded together to help our neighbours who are under attack and are defending European values. The Hungarian people are standing on the side of Ukraine,” said Cseh.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
