Orbán’s Election Victory Highlights Shift Among Hungarian Jews

Some parallels to Israeli politics

Hungary’s election has some parallels to Israel’s political constellation, particularly between the reigns of Orbán and Benjamin Netanyahu. Both Orbán and Netanyahu were long-serving prime ministers with a recess in-between their first two tenures. Fidesz is most closely aligned with Israel’s Likud (to the extent that party leaders abide by its national-conservative principles). Their aspiring ousters created a coalition of parties from left to right, headed by conservative leaders—with Israel’s ad hoc coalition succeeding.

The two iconic leaders met in Israel in 2017. As part of the Hungarian delegation to Israel, Köves remarked how perceptions of Orbán in Israel were split along political lines, just as they are in Europe: the left slammed Orbán as a “fascist” while the right hailed him as the leader of pro-Israel sentiment in the E.U.

In their most recent elections, the prime ministers’ personas, length of tenure and perceived corruption, rather than specific policies, were the main targets of attack.

“The topics of opposition were not mainly on the content side; instead, they focused on Fidesz and Orbán’s alleged corruption, anti-E.U. policies, and on complaints that he is damaging Hungary’s international reputation, instead of building it up,” said Martin Böhm, a researcher on Jewish issues at the conservative Mathis Corvinus Collegium Foundation.

Böhm said that Orbán’s “Hungary First” stance on immigration has largely become consensus, leaving Orbán’s relationship with Putin as the opposition’s most hopeful, last-ditch argument. Social-media sites were awash with pictures of Orbán and Putin’s handshake in 2017 and “pro-Putin” epithets. While Hungary has accepted around half a million Ukrainian refugees and supports NATO’s role in countering Russia, it has opposed an E.U.-wide energy embargo as well as a potentially confrontational weapons transport via Hungary, sparking anger from its European neighbors, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Orbán said that suddenly cutting-off Russian energy, of which it has long been dependent, would have disastrous effects on Hungary’s economy.

“I think people feel the way Orbán said,” noted Köves. “To help the refugees but not to be dragged into the war. And also, they want to have heating in their houses, which would not be possible without energy from Russia.”