Skip to Content

Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony/ Opposition candidate Peter Marki-Zay/ European Parliament Vice-president, Ms. Dobrev. Wikipedia
Budapest

Hungarian opposition backs conservative Catholic figure to dethrone Orban

In the spring of 2022, the Hungarian opposition believe they will have the opportunity to defeat Viktor Orban, who has been in power since 2010.

Published: October 18, 2021, 10:38 am

    Read more

    It is a prospect which, according to French daily Le Monde, has prompted six very diverse parties to unite and to choose a single candidate. Thus Peter Marki-Zay will embody the hopes of a coalition bringing together six parties from the left to the extreme right, in view of the legislative elections of spring 2022.

    They believe they are ready for anything. Six months before the Hungarian legislative election. The nationalist Prime Minister Orban will therefore have to face an improbable coalition of six parties, all united around a single slogan: “Orban, that’s enough”. There is a united front against of one of the strongmen of Eastern Europe who had pushed out left-wing parties, a social democratic trend, and in particular a move to work together with a far-right formation that Le Monde described as “formerly neo-Nazi” as in Ukraine.

    Viktor Orban’s ‘sustainable society’

    It appears that the Magyar left is ready to do anything to get rid of Viktor Orban. On Sunday, October 17, the six allies also proposed a single candidate, Peter Marki-Zay. He is conservative and Catholic, and a former voter of Fidesz – the political formation of Viktor Orban. This candidate was chosen above all for his political profile, which would prove to be difficult to attack by the Hungarian Prime Minister.

    Pro-European, anti-corruption

    At the origin of this alliance, is a simple observation: “Leftist ideas do not move the majority in Hungary today,” according to Gergely Karacsony – mayor of Budapest and a figure in the leftist opposition.

    Karacsony announced on October 8 that he would withdraw from the primary contest which will choose a joint opposition nominee to challenge right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, ending his participation in a race in which he was once considered the frontrunner organized by the six parties. “I believe that Peter Marki-Zay can unite the opposition,” he said in response to his withdrawal.

    In fact, in the first round of the primaries, Marki-Zay only came in third place behind Gergely Karacsony and Klara Dobrev, a 49-year-old lawyer and vice president of the European Parliament, but his conservative pedigree won him the race.

    Peter Marki-Zay was therefore elected with 56,7 percent of the votes and will have the heavy task of challenging Viktor Orban. For the first time in twelve years, noted Le Monde, Prime Minister Orban appears to be challenged in the polls, as Fidesz is in a tight race with this unprecedented coalition.

    “We will be able to restore freedom in this country”, said Peter Marki-Zay during his inauguration speech on Sunday, October 17. Aged 49 and father of seven children, the latter intends to bet everything on his political profile, resolutely modern. He himself is a conservative and a Catholic, as well as the independent mayor of a large town in south-eastern Hungary, Hodmezovasarhely.

    Peter Marki-Zay has also proclaimed his attachment to the European Union. In favor of Hungary’s entry into the euro zone and the European public prosecutor’s office, Peter Marki-Zay has promised that once he gets elected, he would investigate many relatives of Viktor Orban, suspected of getting rich thanks to alleged nepotism.

    His profession of faith which was therefore accepted by the Hungarian left, which also made sure that the conservative candidate would not infringe “on the rights of homosexuals”. It now remains to bring down the popular Orban, determined to hold onto power.

    The candidate’s ‘migrant counter’

    In 2018, Marki-Zay announced that he would be running as an independent candidate in the mayoral by-election. His candidacy was initially supported by three opposition parties, including the Hungarian Socialist Party, Politics Can Be Different and the far-right Jobbik, with Momentum and the Democratic Coalition endorsing him a few days later.

    He said at the time that he did not sympathise with the views of any of the parties supporting him, describing himself as a right-wing Christian, and a disappointed Fidesz voter. But during his first term as a mayor, he was eventually ordered by his leftist partners to remove a “migrant counter” he had placed inside the city hall.

    Despite the historically unprecedented unity of the opposition parties backing him, his candidacy was initially seen as a long-shot by many observers, owing to Fidesz’s popularity in the city as well as his political inexperience. But they acknowledged that he had managed to become the city’s first non-Fidesz mayor since 1990.

    Following his success, Marki-Zay has continued to advocate for a nationwide unity between opposition parties. In 2018, he founded the non-partisan Everybody’s Hungary Movement [Mindenki Magyarországa Mozgalom; MMM] in order to further cooperation between opposition parties.

    In 2019, Marki-Zay ran for reelection, this time under the banner of MMM and his candidacy was once again supported by all major opposition parties. He defeated the Fidesz-backed independent candidate István Grezsa by 13478 votes to 10042, earning him a second term as the city’s mayor.

    Consider donating to support our work

    Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.

    Keep ​your language polite​. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in​,​ for example​, ​Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.

    If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violation​s​ of​ any​ law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.

    If your comments are subject to preview ​by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.

    We reserve the right to del​ete​ comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

    Europe
    DESTRUCTIVE HAILSTORMS will become more frequent and violent with increasingly larger hail, predicted solar researcher Valentina Zharkova back in 2019 when she stated that it's one of many signs of an impending Grand Solar Minimum. This is exactly what we have witnessed this year in both Europe and the world. Here is the German town of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria after a hailstorm on August 26th. Almost all rooftops and cars were damaged. The centuries-old church and monastery were damaged for the first time ever. Interestingly, the monastery was rebuilt in 1699 during the Maunder Minimum. Combined with heavy rainfall, extreme weather will devastate a significant portion of our food production. For instance, heavy rainfall destroyed a quarter of all crops in Greece in just two days in September. However, mainstream media remains silent. Photo: X @safe0007/Sandor Feher

    NOAA Predicts Zero Sunspots for Almost the Whole 2030s

    CLIMATEThe United States' government scientific organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicts zero sunspots from 2031 to 2040. This is an extreme situation that has not occurred in as long as humanity has been counting sunspots, and it leads us into uncharted territory in terms of our solar system. However, this prediction aligns with the warnings of the world-renowned solar researcher Valentina Zharkova for many years, who indicated in 2019 various signs of this catastrophic phenomenon, including the extreme hailstorms we have seen in Europe and the world this summer. The forecast and various observations this year give cause for very significant concern. In this unique analysis, Free West Media explains why.

    NATIONALIST COLLABORATION TAKES SHAPE. Six parties met in Budapest on August 26th to sign a joint declaration confirming the friendship and political unity among the parties. The goal is to either form a new group in the European Parliament after the EU elections in June next year or to reconstitute the existing Identity and Democracy (ID) group with the new parties. Pictured from left to right: Mikael Jansson (Alternative for Sweden), Thierry Baudet (Forum for Democracy, Netherlands), László Toroczkai (Mi Hazánk, Hungary), Kostadin Kostadinov (Vazrazhdane, Bulgaria), and Josef Nerušil (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, Czech Republic). Also included is Mass-Voll from the non-EU country Switzerland (inset image). Photo: Free West Media

    European Nationalist Parties Forge Cooperation Ahead of EU Elections

    EUROPEAN ELECTIONSOn Saturday, August 26, representatives of six European nationalist parties gathered in Budapest. The meeting was initiated by the Hungarian party Mi Hazánk and took place in the national parliament. Representatives of the parties signed a joint declaration that not only reaffirms the parties' friendship but also their unity on a range of complex political issues. A surprisingly clear and radical manifesto was established. The hope is that this cooperation will lead to success in the EU elections and eventually result in the formation of a group in the European Parliament. For Swedish nationalism, this meeting marks a success as Sweden, for the first time, has a party represented in a leading nationalist cooperation in Europe. Free West Media was present at this historic event.

    Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson participated in the Pride parade in Stockholm where Erdogan was ridiculed, something that Turkey took particularly badly. Photo: Nya Tider

    Turkey Believes Sweden Hasn’t Done Enough

    Sweden will have to wait a bit longer for NATO membership, according to Turkey's Justice Minister Jilmaz Tunc. First, Sweden must extradite the "terrorists" Turkey wants and stop the desecration of the Quran.

    Ka-52 crashes after being hit by a Swedish RBS 70. Russian sources report that one of the two pilots died in the crash. Image: Telegram

    Swedish Weapon Takes Down Russia’s Best Attack Helicopter

    The Russian attack helicopter Ka-52 is considered one of the world's best and has struck fear in Ukraine, where it has hunted down tanks and other armored vehicles, often beyond the range of many light anti-aircraft systems. However, it has met its match in the Swedish air defense missile system RBS 70, which has quickly led to significant losses for the Russian helicopter forces.

    Alternative for Germany held its conference during the last weekend of July in the thousand-year-old city of Magdeburg, located by the Elbe River in the eastern German state of Saxony. The first of the two conference days began with a strong program speech by the party's male spokesperson. Subsequently, party officials were elected and motions were addressed. The second day was entirely devoted to candidate selection and positioning for the EU election in June next year. Screenshot: AfD on Facebook

    Strong Confidence in German AfD

    Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a party conference on July 29-30 to select candidates for the upcoming EU election next year. EU Parliament member Maximilian Krah, belonging to the party's more radical, ethnonationalist faction, was appointed as the top candidate. The party's two spokespersons delivered powerful speeches criticizing the EU's failed migration policy and trade sanctions that isolate Europe and Germany from the rest of the world. They argued that it's time for the EU to return a significant portion of its power to national parliaments. However, they have dropped the demand for Germany to exit the EU.

    Maximilian Krah is one of the AfD politicians who is singled out as an ethnonationalist, as he has stated that there is a distinction between ethnic Germans and immigrants who have obtained German citizenship. Krah is a Member of the European Parliament and AfD's top candidate for the upcoming European Union election next year. Still image: AfD on Facebook

    The Establishment Wants to Ban Germany’s Second Largest Party – for the Sake of Democracy

    The rising popularity of AfD has raised strong concerns within the establishment. Despite lies and demonization in the media and isolation from the overall political establishment, the party continues to grow. Certain representatives of the party are accused of becoming increasingly "extreme," and in an unusual move, the influential weekly newspaper Der Spiegel demanded that AfD be "banned."

    FvD was quick to support the protests against covid restrictions. Today, the party also stands behind the farmers protests against the governments’ plans to close a big portion of the farms in the country for the sake of “climate”. The picture is from a protest against covid restrictions in Amsterdam in January of last year. Photo: Wion

    Dutch FvD break through the media blockade

    What is happening in the Netherlands? It is often difficult to follow events in other countries, especially when distorted by system media. We give Forum for Democracy (FvD) the opportunity to speak out on the political situation in the Netherlands and the staunch resistance they face in trying to save the country.

    Albert Bourla (l.) has close ties to Ursula von der Leyen (center). YouTube screenshot

    The Ursula von der Leyen Affair

    After a criminal complaint in Belgium against the President of the European Commission, the so-called SMS-case, now takes a new turn. The judge responsible for the investigation will likely gain access to the secret messages exchanged between Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, at least if they haven't been deleted.

    Daniel Friberg, founder of the publishing house Arktos, tells Nya Tider that they intend to counter censorship by starting new ventures, including an online cultural magazine and an online university. Photo: Arktos

    Publisher of Unique Literature Worldwide Blocked by International Distributor

    Arktos has distinguished itself by publishing groundbreaking philosophers and social critics. Now, the publisher's international distributor has abruptly terminated the cooperation, and more than 400 already printed titles cannot reach their audience. There is strong evidence that the distributor has been under pressure, something that has also happened in Sweden. We have spoken with Arktos founder Daniel Friberg about the ongoing struggle for freedom of speech in a shrinking cultural corridor.

    Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the Catholic bishops who signed the letter, which was read out in churches throughout Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland over the Easter weekend. Photo: The Catholic Church

    Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology

    The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

    Go to archive