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.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30