By Tolga Dişçi
The most important event of the last days in Hungary is the resignation of the President. Hungarian President Katalin Novak’s pardon of a person convicted in a sexual abuse case sparked public reactions and Novak resigned on 10 February.
Hungarian journalist Ferenc Almassy, Editor-in-Chief of Visegrad Post, explained the developments to us.
How do you interpret the resignation of the president Katalin Novak? Is it just a legal case, or are there any other political reasons behind? How do you think it will affect Hungary in the near future?
“USA is the suspect in this case”
Although the causes of the resignation seem to be accidental, the whole story is odd. According to László Földi, former intelligence officer and security expert, who is close to Orbán’s Fidesz party, the USA is the suspect in this case and has had implication to some extent.
I don’t know if it is the case, but for sure many countries and political groups would have interest for this kind of scandal to take place, in order to weaken Hungary. So, we have to be very careful, stick to the facts, and trust the state institutions to reveal everything that needs to be revealed.
The resignation of President Katalin Novák, but also the one of former Minister of Justice Judit Varga are a terrible blow to Orbán and his party, especially at the beginning of the campaign for the local and European elections that will be held on June 9.
These two women were the feminine faces of Fidesz, and a hope for the future of the party.
After their demission, I believe Fidesz will now fight back and target some major figures of the liberal opposition. It is the biggest political scandal since 2010 and Orbán’s coming back into power. None can tell what it will bring, but it will have for sure an impact on Hungary’s politics.
It is reported that Prime Minister Orban was threatened by EU officials by phone about the issue of supporting Ukraine. What do you say about this issue? What should be next moves of Budapest against these threats?
“Two years old arm wrestling between Budapest and Brussels”
This is part of a two-year-old arm wrestling between Budapest and Brussels. As the EU tries to take a bigger part in the support for Ukraine while the US steps back discretely, pressure increases on Hungary which is the voice of the sovereignists at the European level on this issue.
Meanwhile, Austria is increasing its Russian gas supplies, but nobody talks about that. Once again, that shows that the attacks on Hungary on the pretext of its position regarding Ukraine are political and insincere. This is theater made in order to push a narrative, nothing more.
Orbán, meantime, is a democratically elected leader, and he fears his voters, not the EU bureaucrats, and act accordingly, even though he has to find some balance: the EU is using unlawfully financial means to blackmail Hungary, and we are a small country with little money, which makes us vulnerable to such blackmails.
This situation explains the very simplistic national communication campaigns conducted by Orbán, in order to strengthen his popular support. Public support is the best weapon of Orbán in his struggle with unelected bureaucrats.