Fidesz

Despite the increasing international prominence of mayors and municipal networks, local governments across Europe face numerous challenges. In the UK, local councils lack the resources to fulfill their extensive responsibilities, while in France, attempts at decentralization have been hindered by a lack of clarity over the distribution of responsibilities and a relatively high degree of central government interference.

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.

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 most controversial Hungarian story in recent memory includes the resignation of Hungary’s President and a former Minister of Justice, a presidential pardon for an accomplice in a pedophilia crime, and, as it turns out, the leader of the Hungarian Reformed Church. It recently came to light that in 2022 Katalin Novák pardoned a man, who was convicted of coercion while aiding a pedophile in covering up his crimes.

Demography, fewer and fewer children being born, population decline, aging society, migration, crisis; when we talk about demography in the European Union today, these are the primary factors we think about. We hear it a lot, but how big is the real \"crisis\"?

Academic freedom is the cornerstone of a thriving educational environment, providing researchers, teachers, and students with the independence to pursue knowledge and engage in intellectual discourse without fear of censorship or political interference. It nurtures an atmosphere that promotes the unfettered exchange of ideas, challenges existing beliefs, and encourages the pursuit of truth.

In December 2022, the Hungarian government launched its 12th national consultation, asking voters about their views on the Ukraine-Russia war and the European Union\'s sanctions. The consultation, as usual was filled with manipulated questions, false dilemmas, and vague expressions, and was preceded by a strong, one-sided Eurosceptic and state-funded campaign.

The following article is an analysis of how the Orbán government transformed the form of conditional distribution in Hungary over the past 12 years. How did the support system for the poor become the support system of the middle and upper middle class and how did it exclude the most disadvantaged groups from almost all benefits?