Keeping the camp together requires Viktor Orbán, which is why the former prime minister is accepting the Fidesz party presidency for one year, Gergely Gulyás, the party’s parliamentary group leader said at Fidesz’s 32nd renewal congress in Budapest on Saturday.

To renew the party, the goals of a “civic Hungary” must not be abandoned. The organisational transformation of the party and the expansion of social dialogue could be new tools for this, he said.

Regarding Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s accusations that the government under Orbán had plans for a migrant camp at Vitnyéd, Gulyás said that to be able to negotiate with the EU about cancelling a fine imposed on Hungary, a government decision was made in which the Vitnyéd camp was a part, but they never wanted to build it, “it was a tactical tool for negotiations”.

Fidesz board chairman László Kövér said in his assessment the period between 2012 and 2022 was the most successful period for Hungary in the more than one hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, bringing continuous and significant upswing for the country and families.

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Gergely Gulyás. Photo: Facebook/Gulyás Gergely

Kövér said they are all aware that this does not mean that they have governed without mistakes, omissions or weaknesses, and they are even ready to accept the criticism of their opponents that they have not governed well and have not achieved enough.

He said hard times are coming as the team that was “manipulated” from abroad, which would have been ready to shed blood in the event of defeat, like the Ukrainians, will bring “a tide of tears” to Hungary. “They will sell out and hand over the country to those foreign interests that want to plunder it, just as they could do this without restraint in the times before 2010,” he added.

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Former minister Tibor Navracsics said the Tisza Party promised a humane and functional Hungary, a system of checks and balances, but instead they received an “inhuman and dysfunctional Hungary” with “a lack of restraint and balances”.

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Viktor Orbán. Photo: Facebook/Gulyás Gergely

He called the past 16 years a success story, as the Hungarian middle class has never been so financially strong. He said Fidesz mayors, local representatives, county assembly presidents and county representatives are the “gold reserves” of the party, as they will show the way to the future “despite all kinds of threats from the Tisza” party.

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