Kelemen said the two-thirds majority victory is important because it lents the Orbán government strong legitimacy in a difficult period.Continue reading
After the music had stopped following the European Parliament (EP) elections in June, some of Hungary’s allies were left standing, while some were left seated when an opportunity had presented itself to stand up. One such party is the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) that currently holds two seats in the EP as a member of the European Peoples Party (EPP) bloc.
The leader of the main party representing the 1.1 million-large Hungarian minority in Romania, Hunor Kelemen, was asked about his party’s membership in the Manfred Weber-led EPP during the Tusványos Summer Camp in Romania last week. Those following Hungarian minority politics have immediately understood the importance, and indeed the gravity, of the question posed to Kelemen. His answers though had raised more questions than offered plausible answers to the issue at hand.
The problem implied in the question above is that the EPP has tilted strongly to the left under the leadership of Germany’s Manfred Weber, to the point that it is now in an alliance with the far-left and green blocs within the European Parliament in a clear challenge to the remaining groups that advocate national sovereignty. Mr. Weber often positions himself as a leader of a center-right conservatives bloc, something that the EPP was meant to be at its inception, however, in reality he votes and acts in tandem with the European hard-left. Some of his EPP members, such as the party of former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, the SDS, have openly protested this radical shift to the left, but opted to ride it out within the bloc, perhaps hoping for a change. Others, such as Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ have chosen to leave the group instead of being complicit in its support for policies strengthening illegal migration, gender ideology and European federalism.
For @strankaSDS, member of the @EPPGroup, this ultimatum is not acceptable.
1. We think that @RenewEurope is much more far left than @ecrgroup is far right.
2. After EU election we got 2 clear losers: @GreensEFA and @RenewEurope. Following losers agenda is against common sense https://t.co/XqlRlslY6f— Janez Janša (@JJansaSDS) July 10, 2024
Hunor Kelemen, who represents a large part of the Hungarian minority that is existentially dependent on the Hungarian government’s financial and political support, has decided that he will stick with a group lead by one of the most radical and persistent critics of the Orbán government. This decision, however, is being noticed not only in Budapest, but increasingly among Hungarians in Romania.
(L-R) Hunor Kelemen, Viktor Orbán and Romanian PM, Marcel Ciolacu. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán
Mr. Kelemen has explained his decision by saying that he remains critical of the EPP in a hope that the bloc will return to its Center-right true self. However, recent decisions from Manfred Weber have demonstrated no such shift to the right, and if anything, he has proved himself to be one of the architects of the cordon sanitaire around Hungary’s EU presidency, as well the new Patriots for Europe (PfE) group. Mr. Kelemen also said that another reason for remaining in Weber’s bloc is that they have managed to ‘secure their position’ there, while they could not replicate this in another group. Whatever ‘securing positions’ means, the reply sheds very little light on why the RMDSZ keeps sticking with a political alliance that actively fights against virtually all its declared values.
Mr. Kelemen also expressed his hope that the PfE can one day form and active alliance with the EPP and can present a joint front in Hungarian affairs. This is clearly a wishful thinking that lacks any substantive evidence. The EPP has formed an informal alliance with Marxists, far-left and radical progressive forces in the European Parliament precisely in order to block the European right from gaining influence in EU affairs. They have no intention whatsoever to join their arch-rivals in policy matters.
RMDSZ’s perseverance with the EPP group has been further complicated by the arrival of the largest Hungarian opposition party, TISZA. Manfred Weber went as far as traveling to Budapest to welcome Viktor Orbán’s main domestic rival into his political family. This has left the party of Romanian Hungarians in a very awkward position. Mr. Kelemen said that they have voted against TISZA’s accession into the EPP, although they have no problem with the party itself, only with its leader, Péter Magyar. As an experienced politician Mr. Kelemen is surely aware of the fact that TISZA is in fact a one-pony-show, that of Péter Magyar. Although it managed to hoover up opposition votes with record speed only months after its establishment, most of the party’s voters could not name a single one of their MEPs apart from Mr. Magyar.
We have reached out to RMDSZ with our questions concerning the continuing EPP membership, but have received no reply. Lingering questions concerning an alliance of values thus remain, and voices demanding and answer could well strengthen in the future. The truth about the Hungarian party’s persistence in remaining a member of a left-wing euro-federalist bloc lies closer to the fact that they need the Romanian government’s support just as much as they do with the Hungarian government’s. A membership in a national-conservative bloc such as Viktor Orbán’s PfE would make any future coalitions with a Romanian party nigh impossible. Still, while Manfred Weber, as well as Péter Magyar, could use RMDSZ’s perseverance within the EPP as a propaganda tool against the government of Viktor Orbán, the benefits of the party’s continued membership in a now distinctly left-wing group remain less tangible.