Republikon Institute

In February 2024, Hungarian public life, previously marked by apathy, underwent a dramatic shift. A political scandal that reached the highest levels of government awakened Hungarian society. This rapid change reshaped Hungary\'s political landscape within a few months and significantly shifted voter preferences. The party system was not spared from this rapid transformation either, and it can be clearly illustrated through Sartori’s party typology.

Employment policy has been crucial to the success of Fidesz, Hungary\'s governing party since 2010. Their so-called \'work-based society\', which has led to skyrocketing employment rates, combined with a lack of political alternatives, has made poor, geographically isolated, ethnically diverse regions much more likely to vote for Fidesz.

Compromise has always been important in politics. Coalition governments or parties, when trying to draft new legislation, often give up some of their values to achieve their most important goals and to work together. Parties also cooperate when they choose the best candidate in a primary election like Hungarian opposition parties did in 2026.

If you have lived in Hungary in the last 10 years, you sure have gotten used to living with the constant presence of fear by now. We are afraid of Soros, afraid of the Brussels bureaucrats threatening our sovereignty, afraid of the \"pro-war liberals\" and most importantly, we are afraid of \"migrants\". There were several enemies introduced to the Hungarian population by the governing Fidesz-KDNP party alliance, including \"migrants\".

Hungary has been governed by the populist Fidesz party for 15 consecutive years, maintaining a parliamentary supermajority throughout all four of its terms since 2010. This remarkable success story is most intriguing because it is often argued that populist parties thrive in opposition but lose momentum once they get into government.

The political processes of the past decades in Hungary have raised several questions about the role of populism, enemy formation, and political identity construction. Fidesz\'s political strategy under Viktor Orbán is a prominent example of how populism, used as a power tool, can change democratic norms while stabilizing political power.

The Visegrad Cooperation within the European Union is a regional organization of four Central European member states: the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. The cooperation aims to jointly represent the economic, diplomatic, and political interests of these countries and coordinate their possible actions. All four member states joined the European Union on May 1, 2004. 

Russian attempts at interference can be observed all over the world. They are part of the Kremlin\'s foreign policy to gain more influence worldwide and to make as many countries Russian-friendly as possible. The ultimate goal of this foreign policy is probably to upset the unipolar US-dominated world order. We are now at the point where Russian President Vladimir Putin declared at the 2024 Valdai Forum that the old world order is over.

Recent economic shocks and the European Union’s focus on competitiveness have directed the spotlight on the dangers of global value chains. With its unique politics of  ‘eastern opening’ and latecomer position to the globalized market economies, Hungary’s strategy in the geopolitical theatre raises many questions. In the following, I will use an interdisciplinary approach to explain the Hungarian manufacturing industries’ global value chain exposures.

On December 11, Republikon Institute held an event entitled \"Affordable Housing - Dream or Reality\", which explored the issue of housing in Budapest in a panel discussion with politicians and experts. The panelists of the first panel, all mayors of an individual city district of Budapest, are aware of the housing issues, but there is no universal solution.