Viktor Orbán’s choice to save his two-thirds majority: Zsófia Koncz

HVG published an illuminating article today in connection with the by-election to be held in the Szerencs-Tiszaújváros region of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County due the death of Ferenc Koncz, Fidesz member of parliament, who had a tragic motorcycle accident on July 10. With Koncz’s passing, Fidesz’s two-thirds majority is at stake.

Koncz was an important Fidesz politician in the region as well as in national politics. He began his political career in 1990 when he was elected to the Szerencs City Council. In 2010, he became the mayor of the city. At the same time, starting in 1998, he served as a member of parliament, and, with the exception of the 2006-2010 period, he remained an influential member of the Fidesz parliamentary caucus. Between 2010 and 2018 he was elected to parliament from the Fidesz list, not as the candidate of the district. During those eight years, the Fidesz member of parliament from the district was Roland Mengyi, who became notorious as Voldemort, and whose career Hungarian Spectrum followed closely in August-September 2016. Mengyi is currently serving a four-year sentence in connection with one of the most serious Fidesz corruption cases.

In 2018, Fidesz dropped Mengyi and nominated Koncz to run from the district. Koncz had to face two other candidates: Jobbik’s László Bíró and Zsolt Papp, the candidate of MSZP-Párbeszéd. Koncz won, but only with 49.3% of the votes. Now that Bíró is the candidate of all the opposition parties, the path to victory is more difficult for the Fidesz candidate.

Under these circumstances, it was critical for Fidesz to come up with a strong replacement candidate. The party chose Ferenc Koncz’s 30-year-old daughter. Commentators admit that it might be an asset that she is a woman and young, and of course she would carry on the Koncz family tradition. But for the last four years she has been out of the country, working at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, ostensibly in charge of the development of bilateral U.S.-Hungarian relations.

Although the announcement was made by the local Fidesz organization, as we know it is Viktor Orbán who approves every parliamentary candidate. In this case, he was most likely the one who came up with the idea because, as the HVG article today recalled, “Viktor Orbán is beholden to the Koncz family.” The story goes all the way back to the year 2000, when Anikó Lévai, Orbán’s wife, became involved in a winery business, at whose board meetings Orbán usually stood in for her and gave business advice, based on privileged information, to the fellow owners. He also suggested that they apply for government grants, adding that “we shouldn’t win as much as we were asking for; we shouldn’t receive the most money.” Orbán managed to save his skin when an aggrieved wife of one of the owners leaked the story by arguing that the meetings normally held after dinner in a private home were not board meetings.

It was in this tight spot that Orbán received considerable support from Ferenc Koncz, who was a prominent local politician by 2000. Moreover, in 2005, when the story of the winery business broke and a parliamentary committee was formed to investigate the case, Fidesz delegated Koncz, whom HVG describes as a tried-and-true Fidesz loyalist. Lately, it has also become known that Ferenc Koncz’s wife, Tünde Kondás, an economist, is a key member of the Mészáros team. She allegedly has a thorough understanding of the complicated business arrangements of the Mészáros empire.

Zsófia Koncz was born about the time her father entered politics. In a conversation on Hír TV, she recalled that already at the age of 11 she was accompanying her father in his travels through the Szerencs area. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that at the age of 15 or 16 she became one of the founders of the Szerencs Fidelitas, Fidesz’s youth organization. Four years later, she was a member of the national committee, responsible for “youth affairs.” In 2013, she became the deputy chairman of the organization and was reelected two years later.

It was at that time that Zsófia Koncz’s name became widely known in the country. In March 2015, she and Fidelitas President László Böröcz announced that because left-wing activists had been vocal at Viktor Orbán’s speech on March 15, Fidelitas would launch a “provocateur monitor.” Any Fidelitas member who recognizes one of these provocateurs should report his or her name and add a photograph of the culprit. They even gave an e-mail address for the purpose and advertised it on Facebook. The goal of the monitor was “to expose party members or party activists who are masquerading as civilians.” It didn’t take long for Facebook to remove the call for action, and shortly thereafter the National Data Protection and Freedom of Information Authority declared their action to be illegal. Shortly after the incident, Zsófia Koncz disappeared from the Fidelitas leadership. She was then sent to Washington.

As deputy chairman of Fidelitas in 2015

Zsófia Koncz is naturally again in the news, in part because her campaign activities are questionable. In one case, she was campaigning with children at a playground in Szerencs. The local election committee censured her action, but on appeal the National Election Committee (NEC) found her campaigning with children legitimate because the law forbids campaigning with children only in educational institutions. NEC came to the same conclusion when Koncz campaigned in a school building in the company of teachers and students, this time on the grounds that the school wasn’t yet open. Today, LMP in Borsod published a complaint about her campaign activities. In addition to the charge of campaigning with children, LMP also objects to her promise to refurbish a long-neglected road by collecting signatures and passing them on to the non-profit state company in charge of the country’s roads.

Zsófia Koncz as a candidate

A few days ago, Péter Márki-Zay, mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, wrote a few less then complimentary lines about Zsófia Koncz. He claimed that the best Fidesz could come up with was a candidate “who until now has been mostly known as a party girl.” He maintained that “aside from having the same last name as the deceased member of parliament, she has no other qualifications.” In Fidelitas she was known as “the party face of shindigs.” Magyar Nemzet was outraged. Márki-Zay was called a conductor of hatred who attacked Zsófia Koncz’s femininity and morals “in a base, vulgar way.”

I don’t know about her as a party girl, but she didn’t strike me as a mental giant in the interview with Hír TV I watched. Apparently, she is reluctant to engage in conversations with journalists and often cuts Q&A sessions short in order to avoid them. Local businesses and organizations are helping the obviously inexperienced Koncz, while her opponent, László Bíró, on account of his earlier anti-Semitic statements, is an obvious target. The campaign is already ugly, and we still have more than a month to go.

September 10, 2020