Fidesz

Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance is a political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It is most notable for dominating Hungarian politics from 2010 to 2026, a period known as the Orbán era. Earlier, from 1998 to 2002, it was the senior partner in a conservative coalition government. Founded as a classical liberal party, Fidesz gradually moved to the right and is presently considered a right-wing or far-right party with national conservative, Christian nationalist, right-wing populist, authoritarian, Eurosceptic, and illiberal views. Fidesz was established in 1988 as the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége, shortened to Fidesz), a center-left and liberal activist student movement opposed to state communism. During Hungary's transition to multiparty democracy (Hungarian: rendszerváltás) in 1989-90, the movement became a political party and entered the National Assembly with Orbán at its helm after the 1990 election. Fidesz emerged as the largest parliamentary party after the 1998 election. During this period, it adopted nationalism and saw its popularity stagnate due to corruption scandals. While in opposition between 2002 and 2010, Fidesz formed an electoral alliance with the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), which would eventually become its satellite party. After winning a parliamentary supermajority in the 2010 election, Fidesz pursued national-conservative, Christian-nationalist, and Eurosceptic policies. Using its supermajority, it promulgated a new constitution, the Fundamental Law, in 2011, which further consolidated its power. In the following decade, Hungary experienced democratic backsliding as Fidesz developed a governance strategy of clientelism and institutional capture called the "System of National Cooperation" (Hungarian: Nemzeti Együttműködés Rendszere or NER). Despite popular dissatisfaction with NER corruption, Fidesz won supermajority victories in the 2014, 2018, and 2022 parliamentary elections while adopting new themes, including anti-immigrant rhetoric during the 2015 migrant crisis and Russophilic rhetoric after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Fidesz lost the 2026...