Viktor Orbán’s support for an ultranationalist candidate in Romania’s presidential election has prompted a backlash in the Hungarian diaspora, potentially jeopardising the Hungarian leader’s own election chances next year.
Romania is home to about 1mn ethnic Hungarians, many with dual nationality, who have been a crucial source of support for Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party. But many of them have been incensed by his recent endorsement of George Simion — a populist with a history of physical and verbal violence against Hungarian speakers.
“Hungary’s leader seems to have loftier plans than the fate of Hungarians in Transylvania,” said Szilárd Toth, a history professor at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj.
Simion, a former football hooligan who leads the nationalist AUR party, won a stunning 41 per cent in the first round of Romania’s presidential election earlier this month and faces a tight contest against Nicuşor Dan, a pro-EU centrist and mayor of Bucharest, in the run-off on May 18.
Romania’s Hungarian politicians have come out squarely in favour of Dan, highlighting that Simion was involved in the ransacking of an ethnic Hungarian cemetery in 2019. The AUR leader has also described Romania’s Hungarian minority party as “ethnic terrorists”.
Orbán’s endorsement, followed by the Simion campaign this week issuing flyers depicting the two politicians together “caused a huge uproar” in the Hungarian community, Toth said.
“I want a president who is not a football hooligan, and this endorsement came at the worst possible time,” Toth said. “We were beginning to unite around a pro-EU candidate and Orbán then endorses the football hooligan . . . these things make a difference.”
On the AUR flyers juxtaposing Simion and Orbán’s portraits and distributed in Transylvania this week, a campaign text written in poor Hungarian reads: “Romanians can count on Hungarians in their struggle for Christianity and sovereignty.” The Hungarian premier’s name is misspelled and written in reverse order.
Orbán said last week he “fully agreed” with Simion who had expressed ideological kinship with Hungary’s Eurosceptic premier and vowed to take the same Christian nationalist positions if elected Romanian president.
“No responsible Hungarian politician can aid this man on his path to power,” said György Dragomán, a Hungarian writer who was born in Transylvania.
In a sign of the potential political fallout for Orbán, Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar on Wednesday embarked on a 300km “pilgrimage” on foot to Oradea, a city across the border in Romania where nearly 20 per cent of inhabitants are Hungarian speakers.
“This time Viktor Orbán betrayed ethnic Hungarians,” Magyar said. “He pockets their vote, then turns around and allies with anti-Hungarian politicians, all the wile spewing lies about sovereignty and Christianity.”
Orbán has made it a key policy to support ethnic Hungarians who live in big numbers in neighbouring countries, giving them full citizenship and even the right to vote in Hungary — which they have exercised almost exclusively in support of his ruling Fidesz party.
But the furore over his support for Simion shows any willingness by Europe’s nationalist conservative leaders is potentially at odds with the complex ethnic politics of central and eastern Europe.
The ethnic Hungarian party in Romania, UDMR, a close ally of Fidesz for decades, has found itself in a bind over Orbán’s enthusiasm for Simion. UDMR chair Hunor Kelemen was quick to endorse Dan after the first round of the presidential vote, calling Simion a “chameleon” who said whatever benefited him the most.
“Simion is not a sovereigntist but an illusionist,” Kelemen said. “He is a charlatan not a Christian. Every neuron in his body wants to displace Hungarians in Romania.”
Hungarian officials downplayed Orbán’s endorsement, saying he just meant to keep the channels open in the event of a Simion victory to protect the interests ethnic Hungarians in Romania.
Kelemen said Orbán had called him to try to explain his comments and that they “cleared things” up, even though UDMR was firmly committed to securing Dan’s victory on Sunday.
János György-Csáki, a local councillor in Oradea, said Orbán was probably trying to ensure ethnic Hungarians “would not be ostracised in Europe, even in the event of a Simion victory. But the message was not too clear, hence this circus”.
But former UDMR leader Béla Markó was less sympathetic, telling media in Budapest that Orbán “should have remained silent, or side with UDMR, which represents Hungarians . . . It did not help ethnic Hungarians in Romania one bit”.
