More on PM Orbán’s strategy speech

Commentators on the two sides of the political-cultural divide provide diametrically opposing interpretations of the Prime Minister’s customary annual address at the Fidesz founded Transylvanian ’Summer University’ (see BudaPost, July 30).

In Népszava, Róbert Friss finds the Prime Minister’s claim that his third sweeping electoral victory in a row mandates him to build ‘a new era’ illegitimate, and wonders what measures he will introduce during the Autumn – in reference to his remarks about the cultural strife of the past few months (see BudaPost, July 23). Meanwhile, he doesn’t find Mr Orbán’s ambitions unrealistic, as the opposition ‘is mentally unfit’ to produce an alternative to ‘Orbán’s world’. In theoretical terms, he finds the PM’s vision contradictory, since on the one hand Mr Orbán described mainstream Christian Democratic parties as having become liberal while on the other, he indicated Christian Democracy as the solution. Friss agrees with Mr Orbán in deeming next year’s elections for the European Parliament decisive for the future of the Union but hopes that they will foil the Prime Minister’s wish ‘to take over the reins’ of Europe.

Magyar Idők’s Ferenc Kis, on the other hand, believes that the Hungarian Prime Minister has by now become an important player in international affairs whose opinions are followed closely by the leaders of the great powers. He also describes today’s opposition as unfit for the job and stubbornly following the lead of ‘immoral and nihilistic’ liberal European elites who still insist on imposing their will on Union member states, ‘while they can, that is for another 300 days’, Kiss writes, referring to the European parliamentary elections next spring.

Tags: EU, illiberalism, Orbán