Currently, the ultra nationalist Jobbik party in Hungary is the second most popular political force. Jobbik seems to be the only party that can capitalize on the popularity loss of the governmental party. At the same time, Fidesz's leaders use more radical rhetorics in some dimensions - e.g. against immigrants. There is a widespread assumption that Orbán's national, illiberal, radical shift in recent years is only the consequence of an electoral strategy to win the hearts of radical right voters for Jobbik. But this temptingly simple explanation is false for at least three reasons. First, Orbán himself did a lot to radicalize a part of his electorate with harsh anti-communist, anti-liberal, anti-Western rhetorics. Second, Orbán knows the benefits from the political presence of Jobbik, and he does not seem to be willing to rid himself of that party. Instead of trying to get rid of this party, he utilizes Jobbik, a pioneer, to explore new solutions and push the terms of the political debate to increase his own room for maneuver. Third, Orbán's ideology and politics are intertwined in serving his long-term strategic goal of establishing a new system – they are not just reactive steps to counter Jobbik's rise. Orbán does not need a radical nationalist ideology to challenge Jobbik, but he rather needs it to create the ideological framework for the illiberal system he is creating.
Dr. Péter Krekó is the Director of Political Capital Institute, a think-tank based in Budapest. He is also an adjunct professor of social and political psychology at ELTE University, and a co-chair of the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network Prevention working group. He regularly serves as commentator on the leading international media. His publications include: A Russian spy in Brussels, The Conspiratorial Mindset in Europe, The Role of Stereotypes and Prejudices in Political Public Thinking, Study on the Situation of Prejudice and Intolerance in Hungary, Radical and Far-right Celebrities in the Private Media. Krekó recently defended his PHD thesis on the Social Psychology of Conspiracy Theories.