Jobbik’s president on governance: We must prove taht our ideas work

In his with interview Unser Mitteleuropa, Jobbik’s president talked about the Constitutional amendment, the lies of Fidesz’ media machine, Jobbik’s immigration policy and how he related to Western Europe’s move to the right of the political sphere.

Immigration, quota referendum, constitutional amendment

Gábor Vona said that the migration wave was not just a significant problem for Viktor Orbán to solve but an issue that can help him divert attention from the catastrophic conditions in healthcare and education as well as the increasing emigration of Hungarians or the rampant corruption.

“Fidesz’ political activity is characterized by this duality: they fight a problem that they need to maintain in order to keep up the deception.” Jobbik’s president asserted that before agreeing to backing the Constitutional amendment, his party set the condition of withdrawing the residency bonds which the general public is not quite aware of but they nonetheless enable rich non-EU citizens to buy residency permits in Hungary and thus the European Union.

“The government party refused to back this motion because their corrupt dealings with the bonds were apparently more important for them,” said the head of the leading opposition party. As he put it, while Viktor Orbán is known in Europe for his anti-migrant stance, the public is hardly informed of the residency bonds or the fact that “Saudi billionaire Ghaith Pharaon is the PM’s neighbour and his son-in-law’s close business partner, even though he is internationally wanted for such crimes as financing terrorism, for example”.

Mr Vona asserts that Jobbik’s position is clear: “We do want the Constitutional amendment but we refuse to back half-measures – while Fidesz keeps rejecting the full solution. Many citizens have realized afterwards that the Hungarian ’emperor’ has no clothes.”

Noting that Fidesz had spent 15 bn HUF on the unsuccessful referendum, Mr Vona pointed out that the government kept selling residency bonds in territories where migrants were coming from. Furthermore, the bonds are sold via opaque offshore companies linked to the government. “This is a scandalous arrangement which cannot be justified by economic interests since Hungary bonds could be sold in the regular market at much better rates,” said the party president. “Not to mention what an utter provocation it is that Hungary opens a sales office and looks for potential “residents” in Iraq, right when the terrorists of the Islamic State want to flee from there,” Mr Vona added.

He also explained how his party would handle the immigration issue in government: “While considering the international treaties and EU regulations, Jobbik will do whatever it can to preserve Hungary’s monocultural society.” As he put it, multiculturalism is a wrong path, which is bound to fail in Western European countries, and if they still keep forcing it, they will eventually eradicate European culture. In his view, Central and Eastern Europe still has the option to make a different choice and decide not to follow this misguided concept, and he believes such a decision is inevitable. “Multiculturalism is not our way. The current demographic, cultural, economic and social challenges must be solved in a Christian and truly European context.”

The challenger’s role

Talking about Jobbik’s progress into a people’s party, Mr Vona explained it was time for the party to grow up and become a clear challenger for the current government party since it can reach out to large voter groups which is proven by the findings of an international poll concluding that 53 per cent of below-35 citizens would vote for Jobbik.

He emphasized that he wasn’t worried about Jobbik undergoing a similar split as Jörg Haider’s FPÖ, since it is Hungary’s most stable political organization, unlike the government party, for example: “If you took Viktor Orbán out of Fidesz, the party would immediately collapse into squabbling, corrupt clans.”

As he put it, he has been Jobbik’s president for 10 years but his party is not kept together just by him, but by the patriotism of their voters, which has always helped them to overcome any difficulties.

Referring to such allegations that Jobbik was serving Russia’s interests and he supposedly participated in homosexual orgies or kept contact with Turkish terrorists, Mr Vona said: “The fact that the government party and its media spread so many lies about me clearly shows they are afraid of us and afraid of me.”

Mr Vona considers these libels as a positive feedback on his efforts but he is going to take legal action for the ones that are way out of line even in a political discourse. However, he’s not going to let them distract him from working with his party for a “fair, free and democratic” Hungary.

The new forces of the right must prove they are worthy of the voters’ trust

Regarding the increasingly pro-right and anti-globalist international political sphere, Mr Vona stated that the common feature of the processes going on in the West is that all point to the end of the liberal opinion shapers’ dictatorship as well as the political course built upon it, which he sees as a positive outcome.

However, the party president warned that “changing the liberal approach is important but not sufficient. We cannot build on rejection only, we must also show what it is that we, the force of the change, would do differently, (…) and when we are given the mandate of the people, we must prove that our ideas work.”

“While I am happy about the changes going on in various parts of the world, I am also excited and looking forward to how we are going to cope with the responsibility ahead of us.”

Discussing Jobbik’s relation to the radical parties of the German-speaking countries, Mr Vona stated: “It is a great pleasure for me to see AfD’s and FPÖ’s accomplishments and I still root for them. The efforts of these forces to seek relations with Hungary’s current governing parties is understandable but it is just a temporary phenomenon.”

In his view, political relations are in a state of change just like all other matters, so if Jobbik gets into government, these parties will seek cooperation just as they do with Fidesz now.

Read this interview in German. 

Photo: MTI

Source: Jobbik – press release