Intra-Fidesz Spats are a Sign of Disunity, not a Pre-Planned Strategy
Fidesz’s chaotic communications are a sign of disunity, not a pre-planned strategy, argues Ábel Bede
In our previous newsletter, Hanna Fölsz discussed the chaotic and often self-critical new Fidesz communications. She explained how this might be a pre-planned effort to show the Hungarian public that the party is ready to change. In this article, I will argue the opposite; that the recent changes in communication styles and public conflicts are a sign of internal disunity and not a pre-planned strategy.
Just like any other large party, Fidesz was never without its internal divisions. While partly thanks to its heavily centralised operation (Viktor Orbán has the final say on everything), it managed to conceal them much better than other major parties, there have always been rumours about existing conflicts.
The most common rumours circulating in the past few years were as follows:
Town mayors and moderate figures within Fidesz and KDNP are frustrated with the government’s conflicts with the EU. The former due to the resulting lack of funds, the latter for ideological reasons
There are personal conflicts between Development Minister Tibor Navracsics and Construction and Transport Minister János Lázár, who previously had a mentor-mentee relationship, which turned sour. Orbán tried to manage the conflict by giving both ministerial positions in his 2022 government.
There are also personal conflicts between the Propaganda Minister Antal Rogán and János Lázár, both of whom, at some point, were tipped to eventually become Orbán’s successor. Rogán is long thought to have given up on such ambitions and is likely happy operating in the shadows. Yet, their conflicts remain.
There is a general unease among older Fidesz politicians and grassroots Fidesz members about the increased visibility of the obscene wealth accumulation of Fidesz-affiliated oligarchs.
Previously, there had not been many signs of these issues in public. However, the verbal quarrels in the past few weeks seem to resonate explicitly with all of these issues. It is true that last autumn, it was decided that Fidesz comms would become less centralised and politicians would be able to communicate messages in their own style. However, as the examples will show, a number of prominent Fidesz figures went way beyond the new directive and simply decided to air out their pre-existing frustrations outlined above.
Lázár vs Oligrachs
At the end of March, János Lázár started touring the country and holding public forums. At one of these forums, in Kisvárda, Lázár seemingly launched a scathing attack on Fidesz-affiliated oligarchs. As a reminder, here’s what he said:
“Those members of the NER* who latched onto us like ticks and abused the opportunities that were created—the time has truly come to shake them off, so that we can maintain the trust of those who vote for us.”
It is also worth noting that Rogán, one of his main adversaries within the Orbán cabinet, has often found himself in scandals due to his wealth. In 2016, he was photographed travelling to a wedding in a helicopter. More recently, it emerged that his wife bought luxurious clothes for an extortionate amount of money.
The Transparency Bill
The second sign of emerging internal divisions within Fidesz relates to the recently introduced “Transparency Bill” which in effect would make the operation of government-critical news outlets near impossible by fining those who received any sort of funding from outside Hungary and, for example, question whether Hungary was a democracy.
The proposed bill was initially introduced by Fidesz MP János Halász. He was soon joined by around a hundred MPs as co-signatories. However, there were notable absentees from the signatories as well. Twenty MPs out of the 135 in Fidesz and KDNP did not give their names for the bill. The absentees included ministers Gergely Gulyás, Tibor Navracsics, János Lázár, István Nagy, and Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán.
Out of the twenty, there were likely individuals who were simply absent at the time or had no time. However, it is worth noting that during his public forums, Lázár highlighted that he did not sign the bill on purpose and noted that he would wait for a more complete version of the bill. Gergely Gulyás, the Chancellery Minister who holds regular government press conferences, was also not particularly enthusiastic when defending the bill. He even outright stated that the plan to retroactively take taxpayers’ 1% donation to charities found “guilty” by the Sovereignty Protection Office was unfair.
In addition, he also said he would wait for the final version of the bill before deciding if he would vote for it. In the end, last week, Fidesz parliamentary faction leader Máté Kocsis stated that as the party received feedback from several figures, including people within the parliamentary faction as well as at the President’s Office, the vote on the bill will be pushed back to after the summer recess.
Around the same time, the investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi reported that the bill faced opposition within Fidesz circles, including from known moderates Tibor Navracsics, Gergely Gulyás, and Székesfehérvár mayor András Cser-Palkovics, as well as Fidesz-founder Lajos Kósa and, surprisingly, Antal Rogán himself. Panyi reported that those who opposed passing the bill argued that it would increase the likelihood of the EU’s activation of Article 7 (the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights within the European Council).
Cser-Palkovics was busy with other critical interventions too. During last week’s government press conference, spokesperson Eszter Vitályos accused Hungarian councils of “whining” about not getting funds. She was met with criticism by László Papp, the Fidesz mayor of Debrecen, Hungary’s second city, as well as Cser-Palkovics who said he would expect an apology from her.
KDNP Resignation
Fidesz is not the only governing party facing public internal squabbles. At the end of May, Gergely Gaal, a member of KDNP’s leadership board, resigned from his position after labelling the party’s leadership “inauthentic” and having “distorted personalities.” Gaal also criticised his party for not making its unique ideological viewpoints and policy proposals visible and wasting opportunities. He gave an interview to Partizán where he repeated his allegations and criticised KDNP for leaving the European People’s Party and generally not communicating more europhile sentiments. He also criticised KDNP for not standing up for religious freedom in the case of Gábor Iványi’s charity which is constantly harassed by the Hungarian authorities.
While there was a clear tone of hurt in Gaal’s interview and published video (Gaal was passed for promotion to Deputy Leader in favour of someone else), he still remains the most senior KDNP figure to depart and publicly go against his party in recent years. And while there had surely been Fidesz or KDNP figures who were disappointed by their career prospects previously, until now, they did not see much point in publicly articulating them. With the current atmosphere in Hungary, that seems to have changed.
The Unthinkable
The level of unease within Fidesz is also apparent by the emergence of previously inconceivable rumours. Last week, Szabolcs Panyi’s VSquare reported that (though it is still thought of as an unlikely scenario) the governing party has now drawn up a contingency plan which would see János Lázár become the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next election instead of Viktor Orbán.
Such a rumour should be taken with a pinch of salt, especially due to its weight. However, a few days after VSquare’s scoop, the pro-Fidesz news outlet Mandiner (affiliated with Balázs Orbán’s MCC) published a piece rejecting the idea, and arguing that Fidesz’s appeal would be significantly less among the Hungarian population without Viktor Orbán than with him as a prime ministerial candidate. This indicates that there is indeed some murmur within Fidesz and its affiliated groups about the vaning popularity of Orbán.
Navracsics vs Lázár
On top of all this, on Thursday, Tibor Navracsics gave an interview to journalist Szabolcs Dull’s Öt Pontban podcast where he criticised the luxurious lifestyle of Fidesz-affiliated figures and their Ferraris (István Tiborcz, Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law is known to have one) and castles (which János Lázár’s company is known to have). Navracsics also said he would expect an apology from Lázár due to a previous disagreement between them. In addition, he explicitly stated that he would not vote for the Transparency Bill in its current form and that he hoped Budapest Pride would go ahead despite the legislation many interpret as banning it. On Friday, Lázár also told the press that he is in a serious conflict with Navracsics and that it is possible that he will apologise. He then even stated that he might consider selling his castle or potentially retiring from politics altogether.
To hear criticism as harsh as what Navracics articulated from a sitting member of the government is completely unprecedented in the Orbán era. Together with other public feuds in the past few weeks, it signals significant inner turmoil within Fidesz. Besides, the fact that these attacks are often personal and how they rhyme with previously reported internal conflicts within Fidesz indicates that they are signs of genuine internal turmoil and not a pre-planned strategy.
But why do Fidesz politicians behave like this? There could be various reasons. Some could resort to open criticism as they feel they could genuinely root out the problems with the pary this way, while the more cynical among them might simply be speaking to the history books; after the fall of the Orbán regime they will be able to say that they’ve been critical of it before its downfall. The common denominator in these answers is that Fidesz politicians see a threat to their power.
Whether this threat is going to result in the party losing the 2026 election is the number one question in Hungary in the coming year. But for now, the working assumption within Fidesz seems to be that their downfall is possible, or even likely, on their current trajectory.
Ábel Bede
* NER = Nemzeti Együttműködés Rendszere (System of National Co-Operation), Fidesz’s own term for the regime it has created.
Again a pleasure to read a mini-essay from Mr Bede. Work like his approaches the crisp utility of -- I wish it, and she, were still with us ! -- Balogh Èva's HUNGARIAN SPECTRUM.