35 Facts About Fidesz

Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary, led by Viktor Orban.

Fidesz was initially a member of the Liberal International until 2000, after which it joined the European People's Party.

Fidesz gained power for the first time at the 1998 elections, with Viktor Orban becoming prime minister.

In 2000, Fidesz terminated its membership in the Liberal International and joined the European People's Party.

Fidesz narrowly lost the 2002 elections to the Hungarian Socialist Party, garnering 41.

Related searches

Fidesz had 169 members of the Hungarian National Assembly, out of a total of 386.

Fidesz was endorsed by Vedegylet, an NGO including people from the whole political spectrum.

On 1 October 2006 Fidesz won the municipal elections, which counterbalanced the MSZP-led government's power to some extent.

Fidesz noted that Fidesz had a realistic chance to win a landslide.

Strong and preeminent Fidesz has benefited from the fragmented and disjointed opposition that has proved inept at mounting a unified challenge to the ruling party in a country where a majority of parliamentary seats are allocated to the party that garners the plurality of votes in a constituency.

Fidesz held 227 of these seats, giving it an outright majority in the National Assembly by itself.

Fidesz was widely seen as propelled to a sweeping victory in large part due to the dissatisfaction with the ruling political establishment which was plagued by corruption scandals and suffered a further blow by the global financial crisis.

Fidesz won the nationwide parliamentary election in April 2014 and secured a second supermajority with 133 seats in the legislature.

Fidesz won the nationwide parliamentary election in April 2018 and secured a 3rd supermajority with 133 seats in the legislature.

Orban and Fidesz campaigned primarily on the issues of immigration and foreign meddling, and the election was seen as a victory for right-wing populism in Europe.

Fidesz won the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election and secured a 3rd supermajority for the 4th time with 135 seats in the legislature.

Fidesz is currently a right-wing party, and it is national conservative while favouring interventionist policies on economic issues like handling of banks, and has a strong conservative stance on social issues, a soft Eurosceptic vision towards European integration, and has been described as right-wing populist.

The Fidesz party has denied such accusations and distanced itself from the extreme right, criticising such accusations as politically motivated opposition to its anti-immigrant policies and pursuit of illiberal democracy.

Orban and other Fidesz politicians have prominently described their model of government as a Christian illiberal democracy.

The Fidesz government joined the UK-led diplomatic offensive after the Skripal poisoning, expelling Russian embassy officials.

However, Fidesz soon realigned with his formerly pro-Russian position: the party repeatedly opposed sanctions against the Russian Federation, promting international press to describe Orban as "a key Putin's ally".

The Fidesz government has conversely begun admitting increasing numbers of foreign workers due to a labour shortage resulting from strong economic growth, population decline, and rising wages.

Changes passed by the Fidesz government have given citizens the right to use arms for self-defense on one's own property.

The Fidesz government has carried out taxpayer-funded "information campaigns", or "national messaging initiatives", that have denounced supposed enemies of Hungary with budgets of tens of millions of euros per year.

In December 2005 the Congress of Fidesz established the Fidesz Youth Section as a division within the party gathering all members below the age of 30.

Related searches

Fidesz was a member of the Liberal International from 1992 to 2000, and is currently a member of the International Democratic Union and Centrist Democrat International.

Fidesz MEPs left the European People's Party group in the European Parliament on 3 March 2021, after the EPP changed its rules to allow it to expel a party's entire delegation.

In July 2021, Fidesz signed a joint declaration with National Rally, Law and Justice, Vox, the League, the Brothers of Italy, the Estonian Conservative People's Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, the Danish People's Party, the Finns Party, IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement, Greek Solution, the Romanian Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party and Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance on the future of the EU.

However, in 2021, Fidesz opened relations with National Rally, congratulating Le Pen on her re-election as the party's leader.

Fidesz continues to reject cooperation with Alternative for Germany, describing the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria as its natural allies there.

Steve Bannon, former head of Breitbart News a former close associate of President Trump who had an integral role in Trump's electoral campaign and administration, has praised Orban and announced plans to work with Fidesz in orchestrating the party's electoral campaign for the 2019 European parliament election.

Fidesz has been accused of exhibiting anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies while in government.

The Fidesz-led government has been accused of severely restricting media freedom, undermining the independence of the courts, subjugating and politicising independent and non-governmental institutions, spying on political opponents, engaging in electoral engineering, and assailing critical NGOs.

The Fidesz-led government has been accused of engaging in cronyism and corruption.

Fidesz has been accused of antisemitism, and the Fidesz-led government has been accused of passing legislation that violates the rights of LGBT persons.