Hungary Hardliners Hope To Take Party Back To Far-Right Roots
Hardliners in Hungary’s main right-wing main opposition party demanded on Tuesday that it return to its far-right roots, once notorious for racism and hostility to the European Union, or face an internal split.
Jobbik recently adopted a milder right-wing ideology to challenge the increasingly nationalist, eurosceptic Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the ballot box. But Orban scored a third straight landslide election victory on April 8.
Orban’s triumph forced his opponents to rethink strategy and opened up divisions in several opposition parties.
Laszlo Toroczkai, Jobbik’s vice chairman and a former far-right youth leader, told reporters he had formed a new hardline platform and gave party leaders until June 23 to integrate it in party policy or risk a break-up of Jobbik.
He said the platform entailed a return to goals pursued by the original Jobbik, including an end to immigration, stemming emigration of Hungarian youth to the wealthier west of the EU, a tough line on Hungary’s Roma minority and support for ethnic Hungarian minorities in neighboring states.
“If they don’t deal with us, or reject the platform, that could even lead to a split, greatly damaging Jobbik,” he said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO