Yesterday I ended my post on Momentum’s new board member, Attila Körömi, with the observation that, after leaving politics in 2006, the Fidesz-Jobbik politician more or less disappeared from the public view until April 2017, when he wrote an opinion piece that appeared in Magyar Nemzet. And, I suggested, Körömi’s article, as far as the history of Fidesz is concerned, was important enough to devote a separate post to it.
The piece is basically a description of Körömi’s changed attitude toward Fidesz, which he joined in 1989. He first noticed the problems in Pécs, where, when it came to corruption, the local Fidesz politicians were no better than their SZDSZ and MSZP counterparts. On the national level, he found the elimination of democratic practices within the party disturbing. By the summer of 2002 he became convinced that Fidesz was no longer the party he had idealistically joined earlier. But almost two years went by before Körömi finally left the party.
According to his recollection in 2017, the Fidesz parliamentary delegation had an important meeting, with Viktor Orbán in attendance, on April 5, 2004. One of the reasons for the gathering was the impending EP election, the first one held since Hungary joined the European Union. Viktor Orbán didn’t come alone to the meeting. He was accompanied by two men who were unknown to the members of the caucus. One was the man who was most likely responsible for a very detailed public opinion poll that was to be the basis of Fidesz’s new strategy, which Orbán subsequently presented to the MPs. The other man was Árpád Habony, whom Körömi encountered sometime between 2000 and 2002 in the office of Zoltán Rockenbauer, who at the time was minister of national cultural heritage, a ministry Viktor Orbán created in 1998.
All eyes on Árpád Habony at the meeting of the Fidesz top brass in April 2004
Körömi claims that he took careful notes all through Orbán’s speech and decided right then and there that he would leave the party and continue his parliamentary career as an independent for the rest of the parliamentary session. What was it in that speech which upset Körömi so much? It seems that, by that time, Orbán had concluded that the Hungarian people actually wanted a restoration of the Kádár regime and that, from there on, Fidesz strategy would be based on this assumption. As Körömi jotted it down, “in the future we will not tell people for whom to vote, but we will ask the people what to do. Not the citizens, the people.” To translate these quick notes into slightly more sophisticated language, Fidesz gave up on any political action based on principle and unabashedly switched to primitive populism based on public opinion polls.
Orbán further claimed that, on the basis of the findings presented, Fidesz had to turn to the left and rely on the dissatisfied masses because “it is verifiable that the Kádár regime won, won the regime change. Therefore, influencers with leftist leanings must be recruited.” In addition, the party should emphasize economic problems, the everyday worries of people, indebtedness, insecurity, and fear. Moreover, “these topics should be kept alive by constant hammering.” Apparently, Orbán made it clear that, from the moment the members of the caucus left the building, the new strategy was the only one to be followed. So, if we can believe Körömi, there was no discussion. The orders were given, and that was that.
One thing is certain. Körömi is telling the truth that he decided right there that he was not ready to follow Fidesz’s new strategy. I spotted the first news of his departure from the party on April 9. The reason given for his sudden decision was his aversion to the Kádár regime. The other stated cause of his revulsion was that he seemed to have believed in the “polgári Magyarország” (a country of citizens) slogan, which, we have since learned from Gábor G. Fodor, was nothing more than a “political commodity,” which was discarded when it turned out to be counterproductive.
Magyar Idők, the government paper 13 years later, when Körömi wrote his op ed piece, naturally didn’t comment on his article, but both HVG and Index noted its appearance. A few months later, András Kósa wrote an opinion piece in Népszava in which he called attention to Körömi’s information that Árpád Habony had been an important influence on Fidesz policy from as early as 2004. Magyar Nemzet followed up the Körömi piece with two editorials. One was written by Péter Hajdú, titled “The sixth coffin,” a reference to the coffin in which, Orbán claimed in his speech at the Imre Nagy burial, his generation’s future was buried. The new strategy was a success in the sense that it catapulted Orbán into power, but now, Hajdú wrote, he is burying the future of the country in his own sixth coffin. The other opinion piece was by Albert Gazda, who noted that to satisfy the “people of Kádár” is relatively easy. “One simply must, on the one hand, promise and give and, on the other, frighten them to death.”
Considering the well-documented change in Fidesz strategy around 2004-2005, I have no doubt that Körömi’s recollection of the meeting’s substance is correct. But how did he himself explain his abandonment of the party at the time? Magyar Nemzet reported his departure, adding that the MP’s decision to leave Fidesz was not unexpected because “a month ago he informed the Pécs Fidesz organization that he would not run in the 2006 election as a Fidesz candidate.” He expressed his fears that “in the future Fidesz will lose its pronounced national conservative image” (April 9, 2004). Népszava made the same point, but expressed it somewhat differently. The paper claimed that “he was worried about the liberal trend that was emerging in the party” (April 9, 2004).
So, in 2004, Körömi explained his decision from an ideological point of view: he didn’t agree with Fidesz’s perceived turn toward the left. Moreover, his politics as an independent MP reflected his sympathies with Jobbik’s radicalism. In fact, he became Jobbik’s spokesman in parliament. By 2017, however, he cited Fidesz’s corruption, anti-democratic practices, and populism as reasons for leaving the party. I suspect his later explanation was colored by subsequent political events and that the explanation he gave at the time was closer to his real thinking. I do hope it has evolved over the years.
The FIDESZ’s own Öszöd.
With some differences. The lying has not stopped.
The winning by all means has started.
Nasty picture.
Too twisted for the not so smart voters.
This is an enlightening post, especially the last paragraph. It is very likely that many in Hungary, especially those left poorer by the “change”, remember with some fondness the socio-economic policies of what they imagine the Kadar government stood for. Of course, I don’t think Hungarians then or now were and/or are thinking of government led by the equivalent of a Kadar. Rather many Hungarians may want -past and present -to bring back their idealized notion of fairer socio-economic policies, especially with out theft on a grand scale as in the Fidesz regime.
This man sounds like orchestrated bad news for Momentum. To me, it looks like Momentum is doing too well and hasn’t done something to trip themselves up yet. The corruption of Momentum must therefore be high on the agenda. I am curious how this will pan out. Maybe I’m too suspicious about Politics in Hungary 😉
No, I rather feel the same as you do, uneasy. Is this guy a ‘mole’? Does he have a line connecting him back to old times with Fidesz? Who knows? Hungary forms a very little part of the CEE world. Maybe Momentum felt they had to “reach out” and perhaps they do if they want to grow. It would be a pity if they came to regret this current move…
DAY 74 OF THE DEVIOUS DICTATORSHIP
we need to lighten their darkness
“”In addition, the party should emphasize economic problems, the everyday worries of people, indebtedness, insecurity, and fear.Moreover, “these topics should be kept alive by constant hammering.”” Exactly. There is nothing earth shattering in this. A diligent opposition (i) tries to point out the failings of the government (i.e. they are not as well to do as they could be under a new government) and (ii) works hard to repeat the message and to stay on message. These are Politics 101 rules any GOP advisor will tell you on the first day of his assignment. Perhaps, 20 years after Orban digested these “pro tips” and started to working hard in a focused manner on winning, the Hungarian opposition can do so too. Alas, they are lazy even to order a handful of books from Amazon (there are entire libraries to read on campaigning and communications, but a few one would be enough). “Oh my god Fidesz distributes free potato, they are so populist, we don’t do that, we want you to actually purchase the potato, because only this is fair, everyone got some money, right, and so you yourselves should decide what to buy, this way… Read more »
Good one, Marty!
By the way, I think that one of the shrewdest moves by Orbán was granting the right to distill 50 liters of pálinka per annum to each family, tax free.
This smart gambit (together with other similar moves, such as ethno-nationalist, antisemitic and anti-Roma noises, free bags of potato, making it widely possible to share in small ways in the proceeds of local corruption, waving the Trianon flag, and so on) had made him “one of us”, a “good ol’ boy”, and in one fell swoop got him the support of the countryside, and in particular the rednecks, bullies and other opinion leaders, something that the left wing and liberal opposition had never been able to achieve.
Yet it is the countryside that is the key to a parliamentary majority in Hungary, and not the liberal bubble in Budapest and those around some provincial universities. To me it is quite incomprehensible why the seemingly paralytic Hungarian leftists and liberals have never been able to intellectually digest this simple fact, and never mind doing anything effective about it.
And I might add that in addition to dispensing free bags of potatoes, Orbán is terrific at playing the role of the ‘umble good ol’ boy, demonstratively bowing down and kissing the hand of old peasant crones in the old fashioned KuK way, then handing them some inexpensive little gift as a nice little surprise. Great material for the evening news telecast to the unwashed multitudes in the provinces. Unbeatable.
Isn’t it 50 liters per person even (or was at a time)?
Because I heard from friends who have a large apple plantation and couldn’t sell the apples (only at ridiculous prices) that they produced a lot of pálinka and had to take their aunt even to the distillery to use this …
OT – Why we should not write about Trianon by G. M. Tamás fortunately in German and Hungarian
…
“The present self-deception is now placed upon the former self-deception.
The merciful lies of yesteryear – which are even remembered incorrectly – are solidified into unalterable facts, and one condemns – damnatio memoriæ – the remembrance of the ideas of the past. What was once concealed is still concealed. Those suffering from amnesia talk about national memory.
Let’s not talk about Trianon, because we don’t know what we’re talking about.”
https://www.pressenza.com/de/2020/06/warum-wir-ueber-trianon-nicht-schreiben-sollten
https://www.pressenza.com/hu/2020/06/miert-ne-irjunk-trianonrol/
The point is Hungary is lying self-isolated in its own pocket. Seems very familiar when I listen to Hungarians today.
Thanks Don. The myths of nationalism are among the most dangerous i.e. the Trianon myths. At a time when Germany has largely repudiated its own version of this kind of myth, Hungary stands out and not in a good way.
An excellent book published by CEU press, “History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness” by Lucian Bola comments on the actual meaning of the term myth as “highly integrative and simplificative, having a tendency to reduce the diversity and complexity of phenomena to one privileged axis of interpretation”. Myths are a social construct, neither “real” or unreal”, but rather “imaginary” with a largely symbolic nature.
For example the myth of the 1,000 year plus “Hungarian nation”replaces the more complex reality of a Hungarian speaking nobility with an invented nation state going back 1,000 years. The actual reality is a much younger nation state.
Yes, Hungary is becoming more and more isolated. Another reason why so many young Hungarians have and/or are leaving Hungary.
@Don Kichote
June 12, 2020 3:17 am
Thanks for the Hungarian language link to TGM’s brilliant piece on Trianon. This is a very important piece of writing, full of information about matters that should be the stuff of standard teaching materials in Hungarian schools and universities, and compulsory reading for all serious actors in the Hungarian media.
It is a great pity that his low readability style of writing is so crabby and scatter-brained that unless very attentively read, the piece will come across as a torrential and thoroughly incoherent rant. Pity, because the plethora of factual matters that he brings up would be of immensely vital importance for Hungarians to understand their history and their immediate geopolitical environs not as they imagine it, but as it actually is.
In any case, GTM’s contribution makes clear how many questions are not answered and how many sources there are that are ignored. The Hungarian star conductor Ádám Fischer reports about the fate of his family … unfortunately only in German. https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/reflexionen/zeitgenossen/2062268-Adam-Fischer-Trianon-ist-Teil-der-Geschichtsluege.html „… Why was the division of the land historically necessary? It was part of US President Woodrow Wilson’s programme on the right of self-determination of peoples. In the decades before Trianon, Hungarian policy was massively directed against the ethnic minorities in the country. The Hungarian majority did not regard Slovaks and Romanians as equals. The other ethnic groups were oppressed. Of course, at that time this also existed in other countries. In Hungary, however, it led to the fact that after the First World War no agreement between the ethnic groups was possible any more and that the other ethnic groups did not want to live in the same state with the Hungarians under any circumstances. I do not want to exonerate the Romanian and Slovakian nationalists in this respect. On the contrary. In 1962 I was on a guest performance with a children’s choir in Slovakia and experienced on the streets how hateful people looked at… Read more »
„In fact, he became Jobbik’s spokesman in parliament. By 2017, however, he cited Fidesz’s corruption, anti-democratic practices, and populism as reasons for leaving the party.“
Sorry but it just doesn’t add up. It would have been logical if Fidesz had been a coalition partner of Jobbik, which to my knowledge was not the case. Hating the Cardar time and loving Jobbik sounds like a self-deception. Körömi is completely implausible to me, but he is in complete harmony with Hungarian self-deception. But maybe I understand it completely wrong and a reader can explain it to me without lying.
OMG! A man of all seasons, this Körömi?! And Momentum – as a new edition of Schiffer’s LMP?
” the party should emphasize economic problems, the everyday worries of people, indebtedness, insecurity, and fear.”
—Since winning the elections, Orban has departed from this strategy in the pursuit of building a native capitalist class. He has gone so far that he has created an opening for the opposition to march on a left-economic avenue. Fortunately for Orban, the opposition can’t take this road as it is stuck with parroting the West. Nonetheless, the recent local elections have shown that the discontent is growing and that many would simply vote against Fidesz, mere “negative vote”.
If Orban wants to be sure he will big again, he has to return to the old strategy. One which is basically the same as the Polish -PiS- one of combining right-wing cultural policies with left-wing economical ones.
And for that Orban needs money. Maybe the new EU-‘recovery funds’ will provide, maybe his Chinese friends will provide some loans, or something else, but Orban has to get them. Nationalist and conservative policies are fine, cheap (some new statues, passing laws banning “transgender”, etc.) and popular, but they are no longer enough.
Orban has always been a small-minded man and he will remain so.
Small-minded and greedy. Always a dangerous combination.
Hungarian reality is different from that. Even with creating a corrupt elite he tells how good the life of every single ordinary citizens is. Daily propaganda. But it is only great thanks to him, the genius of the Carpathian Basin. It’s that ordinary citizens are tired to hear how great their life is. Just yesterday I wrote that they understand that they earn more year by year, but they also understood that this money buys less year by year. Might be an option to learn something about Hungarian reality.
„to learn something“ I gave up on Ovid. I think he’s an alcoholic.
If you look back at the Fidesz of the 1990s and particularly as the governing party at the turn of the millennium, it’s surprising to see how openly elitist (or perhaps ‘aspirationist’ is the right word) it was back then. Zsolt Bayer’s pathological hate-rants attacked the ‘panelproli’, if anything, as often as the Roma or the (((cosmopolites))). By 2006, as I recall, things had definitely changed, with Fidesz raucously celebrating the ‘Pesti srácok’ who attacked cops, overturned cars and hot-wired tanks at the 1956 commemoration events. I didn’t know that the turn had come earlier. It’s an interesting question why Orbán changed course when he did. Somehow, the year 2004 – the year of EU membership – suggests that he saw another major social transition on the way, just as he did in 1988-89. My impression of 1990s-vintage Fidesz was of a coalition between the ‘nostalgics’ (the remnants of the prewar Christian bourgeoisie and petty gentry, first-generation professionals full of cultural insecurity who used identification with pre-Trianon sentimentality to set themselves off from their backgrounds, lots of people with surnames ending in Y) and the ‘aspirers’ – rural or small-town entrepreneurs who got their start in the Kádár second… Read more »
“It’s an interesting question why Orbán changed course when he did.”
Not really.
First, we cannot arrive at a conclusive result because we can never see inside Orban’s head so this is kind of a barren debate.
Secondly, Orban became more populist and more focused on winning likely because that was logical to him: this is what worked for him before.
Remember that Orban only narrowly lost in 2002 and he figured he had the right wingers but he also because of maths had to add some left wing voters, flip the formerly MSZP voters, if he wanted to win next time.
He eventually did it and they are still with Orban, a decade later.
There is no major secret here, its a kind of liberal affliction to speculate on these things (“is he really an anti-Semite or does he do it just to get the votes, because I know he doesn’t really hate Jews” etc. etc.) which are by nature unknowable.
Probably Occam’s razor works best: in politics do whatever works and then repeat and pound.
“It’s an interesting question why Orbán changed course when he did.”
Perhaps his “right-wing/conservative” vision was never a well thought by itself vision. It was mere/reflexive/ anti-communism, just as it was the case with many other would be “on the right” throughout all East-Europe at that time. Freshly out of the Gulag, communism/marxism was “bad” and therefore everything perfectly the opposite was necessarily “good”. The opposite was liberalism both cultural (individualism instead of marxist collectivism) and economic (capitalism, free-market, i.e. economic neoliberalism instead of state interventionism and state-planned economy).
As the 90s-early 2000s unfolded, and the post-communist realities kicked in, hard, this simplistic ‘reactive anti-communism’ could not be maintained. It wasn’t all that simple as he thought initially.
Orban has no vision. He has only nightmares.
Yes..no doubt of losing power while now basking high in it. He will continue conflict after getting into power. It works as the ace in the hole. As Goebbels thought it.
Regarding the ‘pivot’ in political strategy. Delving into the early days of the NSDAP suggests how Orban oriented his. After the failed putsch by the party conversations between Rohm and Hitler on the way forward centered on how Rohm believed it was revolution first then then taking power in that order. Hitler disagreed. He argued it was essential to seize power first by any means. Only then does the ‘revolution’ follow. And he carried that out that strategy very very well…criminally and with an immoral bent.
Don’t know if VO has studied NSDAP history. But he has done some things which seem pretty copy-cat in the taking and keeping of power by ‘machine’ running in the country. Magyarorszag right now arguably is in a crisis of political immorality. There’s no way not to see that.
wrfree these are also my thoughts even then when he announced we have to go back in time. I stumbled across this just in time. You speak German, right?
„Hungary’s prime minister evokes the glorious past of his country in a speech. The Croats have the impression that he is reclaiming former Hungarian territories – all just a misunderstanding, Budapest affirms.“
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/orban-verstimmt-kroaten-mit-geschichtsnostalgischer-rede-16811051.html
“all just a misunderstanding” yes yes I know this too I have just talked about it with Pusztastranger she writes: “Don Kichote these are the general stages of argumentation 1) you can’t speak Hungarian 2) you can speak Hungarian but you are idiots who can’t even understand a text 3) you can speak Hungarian and understand the text, but since you don’t know Hungarian history, you don’t understand that it is not meant that way 4) you can speak Hungarian, understand the text, know Hungarian history, but you will never be able to understand what we have suffered! 5) bazdmeg!”
I can sign that. „There’s no way not to see that.“ not sure for a Hungarian living in Hungary.
If you have that kind of visions, you should consult your doctor. Although Orbán preaches the ideology of hate, although no anti-human action is too bad for him, he himself follows no clear ideology. He uses that ideology to remain in power. He is convinced by power, money, and of course himself. Just as every ordinary criminal, who will tell you everything you like to hear, while cheating you. Greatest idiots are those who follow him because of his hate speeches, because they see in him a great fascist leader.
Curious how Magyars here and there would react to this. But not sure if the memory stacks are operational. ‘Richard’ here was on a roll. An American ‘boy from Brazil’.
https://youtu.be/1o6-bi3jlxk
Eva has written before about how Orban was influenced by Arthur J. Finkelstein a US GOP strategist. In one post Eva called Finkelstein “the evil genie behind Viktor Orbán’s political successes in the last decade.”
Attila Körömi seems to give the title of evil genie to Árpád Habony. But we know that Habony incorporated a company in the United Kingdom, and that his partner in the venture was Republican strategic political consulting firm Arthur J. Finkelstein & Associates, Inc. The Habony-Finkelstein business, known formally as Danube Business Consulting Ltd., was incorporated in March 24, 2015.
The US based newspaper the Forward did an extensive article on the Finkelstein Orban relationship too (see https://forward.com/news/world/373162/evil-soros-dog-whistling-anti-semitism-in-viktor-orbans-hungary/ ) So I found it odd that Eva left Finkelstein out of her narrative and accepted Attila Körömi’s elevation of Árpád Habony as the true evil genie behind Viktor Orbán’s political successes without qualification.
How could you know who, or if both in equal measure, or indeed if any of them, ..is “behind Viktor Orbán’s political successes”. It is empty speculation, not that we have transcripts of their conversations.
This is true, but Finkelstein did not tell much new to Orban which he hadn’t already known.
Finkelstein provided valuable political contacts in the US and provided very important GOTV know-how (the opposition is literally 20 years behind Fidesz in this regard alone), for sure, but re the messaging and ideology Finkelstein was only a coach, a kind of guru, who motivated and reassured Orban.
As a gay Jew, Finkelstein could assure Orban that it’s absolutely OK to use anti-semitic, racist figures or hate campaigns against vulnerable minorities in a campaign. The election victory retroactively validates such a campaign, always does. He told Orban to lose any and all inhibitions because its a fatal political weakness.
A sraight WASP advisor would’ve been in a bind to advice the same things, obviously.
Fikelstein’s fundamental product and competitive advantage were thus his Jewishness and gayness. He could say things which non-Jew, non-gay advisors were simply not permitted to say.
“As a gay Jew, Finkelstein could assure Orban that it’s absolutely OK to use anti-semitic, racist figures or hate campaigns against vulnerable minorities in a campaign.”
Yeah, as if Finkelstein is someone who could give such an assurance. Who is he ? Is he in control of the whole western media and politics or why such an ‘assurance’ from him would carry any weight ?
“He told Orban to lose any and all inhibitions because its a fatal political weakness.”
Oh boy. After so many years in politics Orban needs to be advised (and take seriously the advice) about how to fundamentally, basically, carry himself in the political life.
It is just ridiculous nonsense.
If you don’t know Finkelstein at all then it is no use debating him.
Back to the 19th century.
“The 6th air to sea diversion”
Priority mail destined to Europe (including Hungary), weighing 42.6 tons will arrive by ship. The US – Rotterdam journey takes 26 days. Thank you for waiting.
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/pdf/sixth-air-to-sea-diversion-6-4-20.pdf
Tappanch, thanks for this! 🙂 🙂
Just imagine if Eva’s valueable (or rather invaluable …) infos would have to go the same route …
50 years ago I had pen pals in the USA – but communication was already a bit faster then. 🙂 🙂
I’ve been waiting for a book too for at least two months now. I couldn’t order it via Amazon then (now it is available) and foolishly ordered it via the publisher, which sent it by normal mail (no option to order via courier). Once, about 2 years ago, a friend sent me a parcel (with normal US air mail to Europe) and received it more than 4 months later. Ridiculous.