Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been re-elected president of the ruling Fidesz party with an overwhelming majority and three of the party’s four vice-presidents have also been re-elected.
“You elected me as president of the country’s largest and strongest party, the only one capable of governing,” PM Orbán said after the election. “The support and love you have given me over the decades, touches me deeply. It will not remain unrequited.”
Paraphrasing a famous sentence by former US President Ronald Reagan – who said much the same during the 1996 campaign for governor of California – PM Orbán said, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Fidesz member”. Reagan’s saying, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican” has since been known as the Eleventh Commandment.
PM Orbán said that even if one makes a mistake, they should remain loyal to the party. “Who among us has not made a mistake during the past 30 years?” he asked.
The Prime Minister was a founding member of the then liberal Fidesz in 1988. He has been president of Fidesz for most of the party’s history and has so far led his party to four electoral victories, three of which (2010, 2014, 2018) have been consecutive.
“With the work of thirty years, we have created a workable state model, a state that is Hungarian, Central European and Christian,” the Prime Minister said.
Three of the party’s four vice-presidents have also been re-elected, except for Gegely Gulyás, whose position as Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s office is already a handful. He has been replaced by former Debrecen mayor Lajos Kósa who previously held the position between 2010 and 2015.
Photo credit: Origo