Published: 11.5.2025
I wanted to begin today’s open letter, related to the waves stirred by the Romanian presidential election, by saying that the Orbán government has „lost its national character,” but such an ironic statement would not reflect the nausea-filled anger I feel at the truly and utterly insane political steps taken by those in power. In fact, the Orbán government lost its national character a long time ago, when years ago it began, with premeditated intent and in organized criminal fashion, to plunder the nation’s wealth and to pit Hungarian society against itself.
Where the Orbán regime has now ended up in its foreign policy drift and its shackled dance dictated by obvious constraints will be a historically significant chapter in the records of the downfall of Fidesz’s two-thirds rule. Let everyone remember who is making decisions now in the leadership of the country and who lends their name to all that is happening, and will happen, to Hungary and to us! The public-fund-devouring ragmen of the Fidesz elite have committed unforgivable and indelible crimes against the entire Hungarian nation over the past decade and a half, and it would take a richer vocabulary to describe the vulnerable and historically tragic position they have now maneuvered our country into. What has happened in recent weeks is a step beyond all imagination. I have said for a long time that Orbán’s far-right pseudo-patriotic ideology is not only a historical dead-end but a self-defeating policy. One can preach ultra-nationalist sovereignty, but it becomes unworkable the moment it meets another nation or government that also cares only for its own interests rather than the alliance, the community, and the importance of maintaining geopolitical balances. With this lunatic Orbán foreign policy, we will soon be alone, and the former „big brothers” we considered friends will step over us without blinking whenever their sovereignist interests dictate. (Just compare it with the embarrassing adoration for Trump’s arrival and the subsequently implemented „America First” policy, which caused serious harm to the Hungarian economy and ultimately to Hungarian families.)
This illiberal spiral has now dragged Orbán and his people so deep into the swamp that they are capable of betraying a significant portion of Hungarians beyond the borders without any pang of conscience. The analysis of the unprincipled motivations or blackmail pressure behind the government’s current state propaganda against its own compatriots as part of its hate campaign against Ukraine would deserve a separate note, particularly the life-threatening manner in which they have thrown away the Transcarpathian Hungarians. But in the case of our ethnic kin in Transylvania, the ruthless abandonment by Fidesz is truly shocking—I admit, to my complete surprise. The first round of the re-run Romanian presidential election was won by George Simion, running under the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), who can be described simply as an avowedly anti-European and anti-Hungarian football hooligan, who considers Szeklerland autonomy a red line and has desecrated Hungarian military graves. Fidesz knew this earlier as well: when the AUR joined the ECR group in the European Parliament, Fidesz leaders (presumably as a face-saving excuse for their own rejection) cited their refusal to align with the AUR due to its extremist anti-Hungarian stance. „There is no way Fidesz will sit in the same group with such a party in the European Parliament! Out of the question!” said parliamentary group leader Máté Kocsis not long ago. „There are principled, moral boundaries in politics that must not be crossed, and AUR’s accession to the ECR was certainly such a crossing,” added Minister Gergely Gulyás.
And yet, the very same George Simion’s first-round victory was recently celebrated by pro-Fidesz government newspapers as a success for the „peace-loving illiberal” side, proudly noting that Simion shares the same views on Ukraine as Fidesz and refers to himself as the „Romanian Viktor Orbán.” No, this is not some disturbance in the force; something else entirely is happening here. A few days ago, the Prime Minister of Hungary himself stood up in support of Simion and, in a speech delivered at the Tihany Abbey, stated that they „completely agree” with him and that they will not support any sanctions or political isolation against him if he wins the second round and becomes Romania’s president. „We can count on each other in the fight for Christianity and sovereignty,” said Viktor Orbán. What blasphemy.
When I left party politics, I publicly vowed not to brand anyone a traitor to the nation; in fact, I promised to fight for an end to this unworthy labeling and division. But there is simply no other word for what the Prime Minister of Fidesz is doing to the Hungarians in Transylvania these days: he is plainly betraying them. The leadership of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) has repeatedly made it clear that if Simion and the AUR gain public office, it could cause irreversible damage to the Hungarian community in Transylvania. The historical Hungarian churches in Romania issued a joint call urging their faithful to turn out in full for the second-round vote and to prevent the extremist candidate, Simion, from gaining a majority. This is the position of the Transylvanian Hungarians, which Orbán and the Fidesz government spit in the face of, spinelessly. That is the truth. And these heavy words are not softened even by Orbán’s subsequent face-saving phone call to RMDSZ president Hunor Kelemen, during which he assured him that the Hungarian government „will not interfere” in the Romanian presidential election and considers the RMDSZ’s position decisive in matters of national policy.
Yet the Orbán government is always happy to interfere in the elections of other countries if it sees fit: Hungarian ministers have spoken at campaign rallies for Serbian President Vučić, and they have campaigned for like-minded allies in Slovenia, Georgia, and even the United States. Now, however, for „sovereignty reasons,” they don’t want to take a stance against the anti-Hungarian candidate and in favor of the pro-EU candidate. Meanwhile, Simion’s camp is promoting Orbán’s „Tihany speech” with Romanian subtitles in paid ads on Romanian social media. Anyone may tell me that this unprincipled Orbán attitude is simply political opportunism and clever foresight (as in Trump’s case), because if Simion really does become Romania’s president, cooperation will be inevitable anyway, and it will be useful that we gave him a pat on the back in advance. Lies, betrayal, horror. Behind Fidesz’s behavior lies either the complete madness of an endgame unraveling or the execution of orders from Moscow handlers. I don’t know which is worse or more alarming.
The world around us is visibly heating up, with power centers shifting like communicating vessels in a geopolitical system, while figures like Orbán are kicking out the support beams beneath the guarantees of peace. It is becoming increasingly clear how the broader context that surrounds and shapes our lives is being reorganized along new political and value-based lines. Inexplicably, Fidesz is choosing partners who are completely contrary to the nation’s long-term security and interests. Where they have now arrived and the policies they represent are utterly unacceptable and harmful to Hungarians.
Orbán was once a young politician full of promise. A liberal, democracy-hungry Hungarian patriot. He will leave as a disillusioned despot, who was given a vast opportunity by history and the nation, and who spent a decade and a half using it to build a football stadium behind his weekend house.
István Ujhelyi
former MEP / founder of the Esély Közösség (Community of Opportunity)
11 May 2025