On April 3rd, 2022, Viktor Orbán, the leader of the populist conservative party Fidesz, obtained one of the biggest electoral victories of his political career. Although six opposition parties, parties that have different ideological backgrounds decided to unite in order to increase their chances of ending Orbán's 12-year long illiberal hegemony, Fidesz received more than 50% of the votes. The opposition's score (approximately 35%) allowed Fidesz to retain its 2/3 Parliamentary majority.
The main goal of our article is to contribute to the understanding of the anatomy of this spectacular failure. In order to describe its ideological basis, we focus on the relations between anti-Orbán parties and the European political families. Given that before the period we analyze (2010-2022), for 8 years (2002-2010) the main governing party in Hungary was the Socialist one (MSZP), we build our study around MSZP and its partnership with the Party of European Socialists (PES). However, we also discuss briefly the role played in building an alternative to Fidesz by the European relations of parties like the Democratic Coalition (DK), the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), and the Momentum Movement (M).
Presenting an overview that includes electoral results, political profiles, and the dynamics of organizational contacts, we aim to identify the ideological influences between the Hungarian and the European level and their impact on the struggle against Fidesz's anti-democratic actions. Therefore, our study is not relevant only for understanding the past, but could also be useful for future anti-authoritarian political endeavors. From this point of view, it can be argued that our article has a normative component. We expose the ideological roots of political mistakes, and we suggest that in order to efficiently oppose a populist leader like Orbán, changes at the local level are not enough.
Keywords: European politics, Hungarian politics, ideology, political parties, Social Democracy.