Orbán Viktor 1989 Beszéd

[Alma Wass]

Orbnstudied law at Etvs Lornd University before entering politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989. Orbn already headed the Hungarian dissident student movement and became nationally known after a 1989 speech in which he openly demanded that Soviet armed forces leave the People's Republic of Hungary. After the end of communism in Hungary in 1989 followed by transition to a multiparty democracy the following year, Orbn was elected to the National Assembly and led Fidesz's parliamentary caucus until 1993.

During Orbn's first term as prime minister, from 1998 to 2002 with him as the head of a conservative coalition government, inflation and the fiscal deficit shrank and Hungary joined NATO. Orbn was the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2010. In 2010, Orbn was again elected prime minister. Central issues during Orbn's second premiership include controversial constitutional and legislative reforms, in particular the 2013 amendments to the Constitution of Hungary, as well as the European migrant crisis, the lex CEU, and the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary. He was reelected in 2014, 2018, and 2022. On 29 November 2020, he became the country's longest-serving prime minister.[2]

Starting with the Second Orbn Government in 2010, during his uninterrupted stay in power, Orbn has curtailed press freedom, weakened judicial independence, and undermined multiparty democracy, amounting to democratic backsliding during Orbn's tenure.[3][4][5] He frequently styles himself as a defender of Christian values in the face of the European Union, which he claims is anti-nationalist and anti-Christian. His portrayal of the EU as a political foe while accepting its money and funneling it to his allies and relatives has led to accusations that his government represents a kleptocracy.[6] It has also been characterized as a hybrid regime, dominant-party system, and mafia state.[7][8][9][10][11]

Orbn defends his policies as "illiberal Christian democracy".[12][13] As a result, Fidesz was suspended from the European People's Party from March 2019;[14] in March 2021, Fidesz left the EPP over a dispute over new rule-of-law language in the latter's bylaws.[15] In a July 2022 speech, Orbn criticized the miscegenation of European and non-European races, saying: "We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race and we do not want to become a mixed race."[16][17] Two days later in Vienna, he clarified that he was talking about cultures and not about genetics.[18] His tenure has seen Hungary's government shift towards what he has called "illiberal democracy", while simultaneously promoting Euroscepticism and opposition to liberal democracy and establishment of closer ties with China and Russia.[19][20][21]

Orbn was born on 31 May 1963 in Szkesfehrvr into a rural middle-class family as the eldest son of the agronomist, mechanical engineer and later construction businessman Győző Orbn (born 1940)[22] and the special educator and speech therapist, Erzsbet Spos (born 1944).[23] He has two younger brothers, both businessmen, Győző Jr. (born 1965) and ron (born 1977). His paternal grandfather, Mihly Orbn, a former dockworker and a war veteran, farmed and worked as a veterinary assistant in Alcstdoboz in Fejr County, where Orbn first grew up. The family moved in 1973 to the neighbouring Felcst, where Orbn's father was head of the machinery department at the local farm collective.[24] Orbn attended school there and in Vrtesacsa.[25][26] His parents and his grandfather completed further education as adults and pursued their careers within the framework of economic liberalisation under the Kdr regime.[27] In 1977, the family moved to Szkesfehrvr, where Orbn had secured a place at the prestigious Blanka Teleki grammar school.[28] In his first two years at the school, he served as local secretary of the Hungarian Young Communist League (KISZ), membership of which was mandatory in order to matriculate to a university,[29][30] and of which his father was a patron.[31]

During his high school years, Orbn developed an interest in football, and befriended his future political associate Lajos Simicska.[28] After graduating in 1981, he completed his military service alongside Simicska. He was jailed several times for indiscipline, which included a failure to appear for duty during the 1982 FIFA World Cup and striking a non-commissioned officer during a personal altercation.[32] His time in the army also coincided with the declaration of martial law in Poland in December 1981, which his friend Simicska criticised;[32] Orbn recalled expecting to be mobilised to invade Poland.[33] He would later state that military service had shifted his political views radically from the previous position of a "naive and devoted supporter" of the Communist regime.[30] However, a state security report from May 1982, when his father was working on an engineering contract in Libya, still described him as "loyal to our social system".[31][34]

In September 1989, Orbn took up a research fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford, funded by the Soros Foundation which had employed him part-time since April 1988.[47] He began work on the concept of civil society in European political thought under the guidance of Zbigniew Pełczyński.[26][48] During this time, he unsuccessfully contested the Fidesz leadership elections in Budapest, which he lost to Fodor. In January 1990, he abandoned his project at Oxford and returned to Hungary with his family to run for a seat in Hungary's first post-communist parliament.[49]

On 16 June 1989, Orbn gave a speech in Heroes' Square, Budapest, on the occasion of the reburial of Imre Nagy and other national martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. In his speech, he demanded free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The speech brought him to national prominence and announced the existence of Fidesz to the wider public.[54] In the summer of 1989, he took part in the opposition round table talks, representing Fidesz alongside Lszl Kvr.[55] Fidesz became a political party in October 1989.[56]

On returning home from Oxford, he secured the first spot on the Fidesz candidate list ahead of Fodor and was elected Member of Parliament from Pest County at the April 1990 election.[57] He was appointed leader of the Fidesz's parliamentary group, in this capacity until May 1993.[58]

On 18 April 1993, Orbn became the first president of Fidesz, replacing the national board that had served as a collective leadership since its founding. Under his leadership, Fidesz gradually transformed from a radical liberal student organization to a center-right people's party.[59]

The conservative turn caused a severe split in the membership. Several members left the party, including Pter Molnr, Gbor Fodor and Zsuzsanna Szelnyi. Fodor and others later joined the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), initially a strong ally of Fidesz, but later a political opponent.[60]

During the 1994 parliamentary election, Fidesz barely reached the 5% threshold.[61] Orbn became MP from his party's Fejr County Regional List.[58] He was chairman of the Committee on European Integration Affairs between 1994 and 1998.[58] He was also a member of the Immunity, Incompatibility and Credentials Committee for a short time in 1995.[58] Under his presidency, Fidesz adopted "Hungarian Civic Party" (Magyar Polgri Prt) to its shortened name in 1995. His party gradually became dominant in the right-wing of the political spectrum, while the former ruling conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) had lost much of its support.[61] From April 1996, Orbn was chairman of the Hungarian National Committee of the New Atlantic Initiative (NAI).[62]

In September 1992, Orbn was elected vice chairman of the Liberal International.[63] In November 2000, however, Fidesz left the Liberal International and joined the European People's Party (EPP). During the time, Orbn worked hard to unite the center-right liberal conservative parties in Hungary. At the EPP's Congress in Estoril in October 2002, he was elected vice-president, an office he held until 2012.[64]

In 1998, Orbn formed a coalition with the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and the Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP). The coalition won the 1998 parliamentary elections with 42% of the national vote.[64] Orbn became the second youngest prime minister of Hungary at the age of 35 (after Andrs Hegeds)[65] and the first post-Cold War head of government in both eastern and central Europe who had not previously been a member of a communist party during the Soviet-era.[66]

The new government immediately launched a radical reform of state administration, reorganizing ministries and creating a superministry for the economy. In addition, the boards of the social security funds and centralized social security payments were dismissed. Following the German model, Orbn strengthened the prime minister's office and named a new minister to oversee the work of his cabinet.[citation needed]

In February, the government decided that plenary sessions of the Hungarian Parliament would be held only every third week.[67] Opposition parties strongly opposed the change,[68][69][70] arguing that it would reduce parliament's legislative efficiency and ability to supervise the government.[71] In March, the government also tried to replace the National Assembly rule that requires a two-thirds majority vote with one of a simple majority, but the Constitutional Court ruled this unconstitutional.[72]

Two of Orbn's state secretaries in the prime minister's office had to resign in May, due to their implication in a bribery scandal involving the American military manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corporation. Before bids on a major jet-fighter contract, the two secretaries, along with 32 other deputies of Orbn's party, had sent a letter to two US senators to lobby for the appointment of a Budapest-based Lockheed manager to be the US ambassador to Hungary.[73] On 31 August, the head of the Tax Office also resigned after protracted criticism by the opposition on his earlier, allegedly suspicious, business dealings.[citation needed] The government was also involved in a lengthy dispute with Budapest City Council the national government's decision in late 1998 to cancel two major urban projects: the construction of a new national theatre[74] and of the fourth subway line.[citation needed]

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