On Saturday, June 13th, Viktor Orbán was reelected President of Fidesz in a secret ballot at the party’s 32nd congress in Budapest with 729 of 737 valid votes. Orbán, similarly to all other officials elected by the delegates, will have a one-year mandate.
Ahead of the congress, Orbán said Hungary under the Tisza government is heading toward political and economic chaos, and Fidesz’s job is “to help avoid” that chaos.
The president started keynote speech by stating: “I never, ever give up!”, accompanied by the thunderous applause of the party delegates.
Orbán then spoke of the most important changes proposed to the congress by the current leadership, deemed necessary to react to the challenge of opposition existence and ensure a better flow of information and ideas within the party from the bottom up, something that had been neglected in the past years. The changes include the modification of the party’s charter, scrapping the system based on constituencies and switching back to an organization in which there are Fidesz chapters in settlements, whose membership elects county presidiums, with the county presidents becoming members of the national presidium automatically.
Another important change is the expansion of the presidium to 28, to include representatives of local governments and MEP Kinga Gál, whose role will be to liaise between Fidesz and the EP, primarily with the Patriots for Europe group.
Orbán also summed up the evaluation prepared by the party leadership and membership of the causes of Fidesz’s election defeat, including acknowledgment of a mistaken assessment of the expected turnout at the elections and of poll results, and the lack of a forceful response to the “libels” formulated by Tisza. Orbán also admitted Fidesz has lost the support of young people, which must be won back.
He stressed that the party renewal is also about gradually shifting the task of leading the party to the younger generations.
In his remarks following his reelection, Orbán declared that he is ready to continue to serve his country.
Before the congress began at 10 a.m., Prime Minister Péter Magyar held a press conference, with critics noting in an attempt to divert the public’s attention from the Fidesz event.
