According to Open4Business, Hungary’s former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been re-elected as leader of the Fidesz party for a one-year term, despite the party’s defeat in the April parliamentary elections and a fall in its poll ratings.
At the party congress, 729 delegates voted for Orbán out of 737 valid ballots. There were no votes against, and eight delegates abstained. Orbán was the only candidate for the party leadership.
The re-election confirmed that Orbán retains control of Fidesz even after losing power. The party moved into opposition after 16 years in government, having lost the April elections to the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar.
According to Reuters, recent polls show a sharp shift in the political balance in Hungary: support for Fidesz has fallen to around 17%, whilst Tisza received around 55%. In the elections, Mályi’s party secured a parliamentary majority sufficient to overhaul parts of the political and institutional system established under Orbán.
At the party congress, Orbán accepted responsibility for Fidesz’s defeat and stated that the party must learn to operate under new conditions — no longer as the ruling party, but as the opposition. At the same time, his re-election shows that there is as yet no public alternative to the former prime minister within Fidesz.
For Hungary, this means that Orbán remains a key figure in the right-wing opposition and the main political opponent of Péter Magyar’s government. Over the coming year, Fidesz will likely attempt to restructure the party, retain its core supporters and formulate a strategy for returning to power.
Péter Magyar, a former representative of the Fidesz political system, formed the Tisza party after breaking with Orbán’s inner circle and became the main beneficiary of public discontent over corruption, the state of institutions and Fidesz’s long-standing dominance. His election victory marked Orbán’s biggest political defeat since 2010.
Viktor Orbán is a Hungarian politician and one of Europe’s best-known right-wing leaders. He first served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1998 to 2002, then returned to power in 2010 and led the government for 16 years. During Orbán’s time in office, Fidesz established a model of governance that the politician himself described as ‘illiberal democracy’. His governments pursued a hardline migration policy, tightened control over institutions and the media, and clashed with the EU over issues of the rule of law.