Hungary's Orban: collateral damage in Romania's election?

New Straits Times

20-05-2025

HUNGARY'S Prime Minister Viktor Orban was so convinced that far-right eurosceptic candidate George Simion was going to win Romania's presidential elections that he gave him his tacit support.
But Simion was defeated by pro-European centrist Nicusor Dan on Sunday, losing Orban his bet – and, potentially, future political support of his own.
Orban's endorsement of Simion angered Romania's one million-strong ethnic Hungarians, whose religious and political leaders feared his victory as a threat to minority rights.
In 2019, Simion – a former football hooligan – was involved in violent clashes at an Austro-Hungarian cemetery from World War I, the most violent inter-ethnic incident in Romania in several decades.
He also urged a ban on ethnic parties, labelling Romania's Hungarian minority party RMDSZ as "ethnic terrorists."
Many ethnic Hungarians expressed shock at Orban's policy U-turn.
Just last year, his Fidesz party refused to sit in the same faction as Simion's "extremely anti-Hungarian" AUR party in the European Parliament.
Since his return to power in 2010, Orban has been building ties with the influential diaspora, opening up an easy path to Hungarian citizenship – and voting rights.
He also financed several projects such as the renovation of churches and schools mostly in Romania's Transylvania region.
His bid to woo local voters, many of whom have dual citizenship, seems to have borne fruit. In 2022, more than 90 per cent of ethnic Hungarians voted for Fidesz.
But Orban's support for Simion has thrown a spanner in the works.
"The threat to our minority rights takes precedence over everything else – the division between left and right, what politicians say," said Szilard Simon from Romania's Harghita county, where Dan received his best national score with more than 90 per cent.
"He bet on the wrong horse," he added.
"Orban's entourage seems to have thought that Simion could not be beaten," said minority expert Nandor Bardi of Hungary's HUN-REN research centre.
Until now seen by many as a "charismatic visionary", Orban's image has "suffered a huge blow", he added.
Shortly before the election, Orban tried to limit the fallout of his comments.
Following a call with RMDSZ chief Hunor Kelemen, Orban claimed that he did not want to influence Romania's presidential elections "in any way."
Among ethnic Hungarians "there is a general rejection of Orban's" recent moves, Laszlo Tokes, a former EU lawmaker of Fidesz and a key figure of Romania's 1989 revolution, told AFP.
He argued that the Hungarian premier was "too hasty" in taking sides, with Orban prioritising his political ambitions in Europe over the interests of the diaspora.
Orban also recently promised Hungary's backing in what he dubbed the "struggle for Christianity and sovereignty" within the European Union.
Simion referenced Orban's backing in leaflets and on social media.
Both Simion and Orban share a disdain for "Brussels bureaucrats", oppose sending aid to Ukraine, and have expressed admiration for US President Donald Trump.
Orban faces elections next year, with political opponents seeking to capitalise on his failed endorsement of Simion.
His main rival, opposition leader Peter Magyar, last week protested what he called Orban's betrayal of the Hungarian diaspora in Romania.
He also went on a 300-kilometre (186-mile) march to Romania in protest.
"They have also discovered the true face of Fidesz, that all it needs are their votes – and otherwise it abandons and casts them away," Magyar said.
Tokes, though, downplayed the repercussions on Orban, assessing that the Hungarian leader's recent "statements did not help him" but there would be no "far-reaching implications."