Hungary – The next European elections to be held on June 9, 2024 could see a reshuffling between the two Eurosceptic groups: Identity & Democracy, which includes France’s National Rally, Germany’s AfD, Austria’s FPÖ, and the Flemish Vlaams Belang; and the European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes Poland’s PiS, Brothers of Italy, Spain’s Vox party, and the Sweden Democrats.
Also on the right side, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, which has been in office in Hungary since 2010, has had its 12 MEPs sitting among the Non-attached Members since their exit from the European People’s Party (EPP) in 2021, while Hungary’s nationalist opposition, Mi Hazánk, is planning to form a new group. At the conference leading up to the signing of the Budapest Declaration at the end of August in the Hungarian Parliament, one of Mi Hazánk’s speakers expressed the hope that two other European parties would join the signatories: the Polish Konfederacja and the German AfD.
In an interview published on September 19 by Gulyáságyú Média, the head of the AfD (Alternative for Germany) list in the upcoming EU elections, Maxilian Krah, whose list is credited with 21 to 23% of the vote, has just praised both Fidesz and Mi Hazánk, thus leaving room for an alliance with both of his potential Hungarian partners. Asked how the AfD would react if Fidesz wanted to go into an alliance, Krah simply replied:
“We wouldn’t spit on it.”
Maximilian Krah, who would like to see the I&D and ECR groups merged, believes that there are mainly two forms of right-wing in Europe: “There are two ways of being right-wing in Europe”, he said.
“There are right-wingers like us and Viktor Orbán, who tend to be right-wing Eurocentric.
But there are also those who look to America; the neoconservatives, for example. They don’t understand Europe at all”.
In the same interview, Krah also describes Mi Hazánk as “a very interesting and intelligent party”: “They’re young, fresh, and straightforward. […]
I’m sure Mi Hazánk will have growing influence in Hungary.”
