Orban urges supporters to resist in first major speech since election loss

Former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has called on his Fidesz party to resist what he described as the “arbitrary rule” of his successor, Péter Magyar, in his first major public address since his election defeat in April, LRT reports.

Speaking to supporters in the Romanian resort town of Băile Tușnad, a traditional venue for his annual summer address, Orban said Fidesz must now operate “completely differently” and serve as a national resistance movement.

In its first weeks in power, Magyar’s centrist Care and Freedom Party (TISZA) has pushed through constitutional amendments and laws that severely limit Fidesz’s ability to return to power. Future prime ministers will be barred from serving more than two terms, and MPs from more than three terms.

Prosecutors this week seized Fidesz servers amid allegations of illegal campaign financing. Orban accused the new government of seeking to eliminate all opposition and lacking the competence to govern.

He warned that an energy price and supply crisis this autumn would be insurmountable, and pledged that Fidesz would support “groups and organisations of freedom-loving people.” Orban described his party as currently functioning not as a political party but as a “service centre, incubator, or ultimately a kindergarten.”

Băile Tușnad is located in a predominantly ethnic Hungarian region of Romania, where Orban delivers his annual programmatic speech.