European Central: Hungary's Fidesz Works To Reorganize Far-Right In Europe
ABIR SULTAN
After over a year since Fidesz was suspended from the European People’s Party (EPP) in late 2019, Fidesz has officially left the political party under the guidance of Viktor Orbán. This occurred shortly after the EPP voted to change the internal rules of the party, making it easier to expel a party. If Fidesz did not leave voluntarily, it likely would have been kicked out due to this rule change. Viktor Orbán currently hopes to work with other far-right political parties in order to organize a far-right alliance in the European Union. Orban states the goal for this alliance is to be the political home for parties that are anti-immigration and supporters of traditional families.
Fidesz, The European People’s Party, and the European Parliament
The European People’s Party is currently the largest political party in the European Union and has been since 1999. The EPP is a center-right political party and will still be the largest even after accounting for the 12 delegates lost from Fidesz. After Brexit, there are now 705 Members of the European Parliament. Members of the European Parliament (simply known as MEPS) are elected by each member state. The number of MEPs each member state has is based on the size of its population.
Fidesz always appeared out of place as a part of the EPP rather than being part of a political party further right such as European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) or Identity and Democracy (ID). Relations started souring several years ago when Fidesz had posters created featuring and mocking then European Commissioner Jean-Claude Junker and George Soros. Fidesz was ultimately suspended from the EPP when the head of the Fidesz delegation, Tamas Deutsch compared the head of the EPP to the Gestapo, the Nazis’ secret police force.
While this new alliance may create some problems for the European Union, it should be nothing major. In order to have the ability to accomplish anything major, Orban’s new alliance would have to be the majority in the European Parliament. This is far from the current reality, and the next election for the European Parliament is not until 2024. At best, this new alliance can try to be disruptive and attempt to slow the European Parliament down. They can however have a bigger impact on the European Union in other ways. When the European Union created a rule of law mechanism to combat controversial reforms in Hungary and Poland that the European Union consider to be illiberal, both member states blocked approval of the European Union’s annual budget in late 2021. In order to get these two member states to agree, the European Commission had to agree that the mechanism would not be used until the European Court of Justice verified the mechanism does not violate any of the treaties of the European Union. This means this mechanism may not be able to be used until after the Hungarian elections in 2022.
Eurosceptic Parties at the National Level
While these three political parties may have little power at the moment in the European Parliament, Fidesz and PiS in particular are very powerful in Hungary and Poland. Both PiS and Fidesz are the largest parties in the ruling coalition in their respective country. Both of these parties have passed controversial laws in their respective country. In December of 2020, a law was passed that allows only married couples to adopt children. As same-sex couples do not have the right to marriage, this effectively bans adoption for same-sex couples. Previously same-sex couples adopted children through one partner legally adopting a child on their own. In Poland municipalities equaling a third of the country have declared themselves LGBT-free zones. These municipalities seem to be emboldened by the views of the PiS, which denounces LGBT ideology and classifies it as a foreign import.
Lega was part of the ruling coalition in Italy but lost when the party tried to force an election by leaving the coalition. Cinque Stelle, the largest party in the coalition was able to prevent another election by forming a coalition with Partito Democratico. Nothing says that Lega won’t be more successful in the next Italian parliamentary elections. Fratelli D’Italia (Brothers of Italy) has been gaining traction recently as well under Georgia Meloni, and currently has the third-highest approval rating among Italians. Fratelli D’Italia currently holds only 7 seats of the 76 Italy has in the European Parliament. Lega won 28 seats, the most of any party in Italy.
Potential to Expand
While Orbán has made it clear he will work with these parties, he has the potential to expand his circle to include other far-right and Eurosceptic parties in the European Parliament that share similar values with Fidesz, PiS, and Lega. Viktor Orbán would have his pick, as many member states have seen a rise in Euroscepticism. It appears that Orbán mentioned working with these two parties before as they have been more successful in elections, particularly at the national level. While there are several Eurosceptic political parties, many only see electoral success in the European Parliament and not nationally. A potential explanation for this is that the European Parliament tends to have a significantly lower turnout than national elections. Rassemblement National (National Front), a French political party, has had more success in the European Parliament rather than in French elections. In 2019, it won 23 out of the 79 French seats in the European Parliament. However, Marine Le Pen who ran as the party’s candidate in the 2017 French National elections when the party was known as Front National (National Front), won a much smaller percentage than Macron, as she garnered only 33.9 percent of the vote in the second round of the election. It is notable to point out however that this is almost twice the percentage her father did in the second round of the election. Back then, he only received 18 percent of the vote.
Other far-right and Eurosceptic political parties that exist in other member states include Forum for Democracy in the Netherlands, Alternative for Democracy in Germany (AFD), Vox in Spain, and the Sweden Democrats, but they all face a similar problem. Other political parties in these member states do not want to work with them due to their views appearing to be racist and xenophobic along with appearing as outright extreme, other political parties in these countries form coalitions to keep these parties out of power. These parties would have to focus on creating coalitions in their country that win a majority of the votes in order to prevent themselves from being ignored. This however will be difficult.
Many member states are also concerned about how Brexit will turn out how much the United Kingdom will be impacted. Particularly due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, many member states are unwilling to take the risk of more uncertainty. This uncertainty may hurt far-right and Eurosceptic parties in upcoming national elections and can be hurt in 2024 if European Union citizens feel the European Union was able to effectively address the pandemic.
