After 16 Years in Power, Orban Now Leads Hungary's Resistance Movement
Less than four months after losing the power he had held for 16 years, former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has begun to raise the flag of resistance. The nationalist leader on Wednesday declared a peaceful ‘resistance’ movement against the new government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, which he claims has transformed Hungary from a democracy into a ‘tyranny’.
The harsh statement marks the biggest escalation in Hungarian politics since the Tisza Party’s landslide victory in April’s election. Orban is not only rejecting the legitimacy of a number of new officials appointed by the Magyar government, but is also calling for political mobilisation through what he calls the ‘Declaration of Resistance’.
“This new political system is not a democracy. It is a tyranny,” Orban said at a press conference in front of the Fidesz Party headquarters in Budapest.
For many observers, the speech signals that Fidesz is now preparing to play the role of an aggressive opposition after nearly two decades dominating the Hungarian political stage.
Over the past 16 years, Orban has been known as one of the most influential leaders in Central Europe. He built a government that emphasised nationalism, social conservatism, rejection of mass immigration, and relatively closer ties with Russia compared to most European Union countries.
However, that era came to an end in April when the Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar, won a sweeping victory in the election and formed a new, more pro-European Union government.
Since officially taking office in May, Magyar has moved quickly to dismantle the various institutions that had served as the pillars of Orban’s power.
Orban Furious After Constitution Amended
nThe peak of Orban’s anger was triggered by a constitutional amendment passed by parliament last week.
The changes include the removal of the president appointed during the Orban era and the imposition of a maximum 12-year term limit for members of parliament. The provision applies retroactively.
Orban believes the rule was deliberately created to push Fidesz elites out of national politics.
According to him, almost half of the Fidesz coalition members currently sitting in parliament would no longer be eligible to run in the next election in 2030.
He even compared the policy to the situation in Hungary before the collapse of the communist regime in the late 1980s.
“At that time there was no democracy in Hungary. There was no rule of law,” he said.
Orban also accused the government of destroying the principle of checks and balances — the mechanism by which state institutions oversee one another.