Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico in 2015. (source: Sme)
Although Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico are on the same page, Slovakia, as a member of the Eurozone, will apply different strategies to Hungary even after the elections, says Hungarian political scientist and sociologist EDIT ZGUT-PRZYBYLSKA.
In Hungary, people who benefit from being loyal to the regime support Orbán even though they can see democracy in their country backsliding, says the analyst. Any new government in the future will have an extremely difficult time breaking the informal power of the Orbán regime.
You said that Hungary is like a laboratory of democracy backsliding and corruption. According to Transparency International ranking, Hungary is perceived as the most corrupt country in the EU. Does this ring any alarms with people in Hungary?
Corruption is highly recognised among Hungarian society, but this doesn't translate into long-standing mass demonstrations on the street to overthrow the government. Hungarians like to complain about corruption, about social injustice – but these protests are quickly running out of steam. There is a low level of feeling of efficacy: more than 70 percent believe that the Hungarian political system “very rarely or never” allows them to influence politics. Civic engagement within the electorate is low, more than half of the respondents would never sign a petition.
Edit Zgut-Przybylska
Hungarian political scientist and sociologist at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Visiting fellow at CEU Democracy Institute, focusing on informal power and populism in the context of the democratic backsliding in Poland and Hungary.
Vice-Chair of Amnesty International Hungary.
Some 3 million people voted for this government and their vote was mainly motivated by three factors. One of them is a cynical political culture. People see that the government is corrupt, but they believe that to accumulate wealth, everyone has to circumvent the rules. The well-educated people living in big cities are outraged by corruption, but you wouldn't see people in the countryside standing up against it.
Another factor is the populist redistribution of benefits towards Christian, married, heterosexual couples with children – the more the better. If you are in this cohort, you have the financial support of the government, because you constitute “the good people” in an extremely polarised society. It is discriminative toward single parents, homosexual or non-married couples, childless people, and others. One segment of Fidesz supporters might feel like the government may be corrupt, but “at least they deliver.” And they could deliver, for 12 years, because of the tremendous sums from the EU funds.
