Fidesz in hunt for radical leaning votes
May 10th, 2012A pro-government columnist believes that the main challenge to Fidesz will come from the radical right, and thus Fidesz will have to occasionally send anti-EU messages in order to secure the support of the radical leaning electorate.
Writing in the ongoing series of articles in Mandiner on the Hungarian right (see BudaPost May 7), Szabolcs Szerető ponders the challenges Fidesz will have to face in the coming period. The pro-government commentator believes that the past years have been a success story for Fidesz. Under the leadership of Viktor Orbán, the centre-right party has become the dominant central political force, capable of representing the values and interests of a rather wide and diverse array of different conservative and right-wing voters, Szerető contends.
Szerető, however, also points out that the two-thirds majority Fidesz secured at the 2010 election is both an opportunity and a burden. The centre-right coalition may govern the country according to its taste, but in 2014 it will be held responsible for all the shortcomings.
He believes that the main challenge to Fidesz in the future will come from the far-right. The radical right-wing Jobbik will try everything to prevent Fidesz from securing a majority in the 2014 election. He speculates that the competition between Fidesz and Jobbik precludes any possibility of cooperation between the moderate and the radical right-wing parties. But the fact of this competition also requires that Fidesz will have to send occasional anti-EU messages and promote harsh law and order policies in order to secure the support of the radical leaning right-wing voters, Szerető concludes.