With the expulsion of László Toroczkai, the nominal head of Jobbik’s radical wing, a new chapter began in the history of the party. It is too early to predict the final outcome of what is an open rupture. It may be the end of the old Jobbik, and the party may finally be able to prove its political respectability. Or the party may collapse under the weight of the radical ballast the party has been carrying from the past. Fidesz and its media are hoping for the disappearance of a right-of-center Jobbik and rooting for the victory of the radicals.
Last night the members of Jobbik’s ethical committee unanimously voted to expel Toroczkai. The resignations of Dóra Dúró and her husband, Előd Novák, followed. Although the Fidesz media talks about a resignation tsunami and forecasts the end of Jobbik, at the moment it is hard to tell how many party members will follow Toroczkai, Dúró, and Novák. Toroczkai announced that those who want to join him in forming a new movement or perhaps a new party should gather in the village of Ásotthalom on the Serbian-Hungarian border, where Toroczkai is mayor.
I assume that a number of hotheads will gather there on June 24, but I doubt that their organization, which will be called “Mi, magunk” (We, ourselves), will shake Jobbik to its foundations. These people are, I believe, too radical to attract a massive following. Toroczkai was a leading figure in the “Siege of MTV” in 2006. He is an irredentist who has been expelled from Slovakia, Romania, and Serbia. He has not changed his attitude toward the Roma either. He announced in an interview with Magyar Idők that he has “zero tolerance for Gypsy criminals who, if necessary, must be dragged by their feet in front of their own Gypsy community and thrown into the paddy wagon to go away for a very long time.” He is also responsible for a local ordinance—since then declared to be unconstitutional—that banned mosques, burkas, and gay marriage.
László Toroczkai in his element / Népszava / Photo by József Vajda
All that doesn’t seem to bother Magyar Idők, which published an opinion piece on the demise of Jobbik. In it the author, Gy. Örs Vitus, most likely a pseudonym, from Cluj/Kolozsvár, Romania, bemoans the disappearance of the old radical Jobbik that “could have had an important role to play in the ‘central power’ system devised by Viktor Orbán that successfully split left and right opposition parties, giving free rein to Fidesz in the center.” As the author put it, if Jobbik had remained to the right of Fidesz, the two parties together “could have prevented MSZP and its affiliated parts, i.e. the forward garrison of the international capitalist class, from ever becoming a factor in Hungarian political life.” Admittedly, the author continues, that strategy wouldn’t have led to Jobbik acquiring power in the near future, but the party “could have had a historic role in the disassembly of international capital” in Hungary. Unfortunately, Gábor Vona was not intelligent enough to see the opportunities offered to him and his party. Instead, he gathered people around him who hate Viktor Orbán, while now the party will lose its “national radical supporters.”
Although the current Jobbik leadership will undoubtedly encounter hard times in the near future, if it manages to hold the party together, the air will be cleared. At the time when the majority of anti-Orbán voters were demanding a Jobbik/left-of-center coalition as the only way to defeat Fidesz, there was strong opposition on both sides. The left-of-center parties didn’t trust the genuineness of Jobbik’s conversion from radicalism to respectable conservatism. This mistrust was not without foundation on several grounds, some of which were ideological and others personal. For example, the presence of László Toroczkai as one of Vona’s deputies seemed a compelling reason to distrust the sincerity of Gábor Vona. As we always suspected and by now thanks to Toroczkai know, the relationship between them was anything but friendly. Yet Vona didn’t dare to get rid of Toroczkai, believing that his presence would keep the radical wing in line. The left’s reluctance was matched on the right. How could radical Jobbik possibly cooperate with the left which, for example, included Ferenc Gyurcsány, the arch-enemy?
The current Jobbik leadership decided to throw caution to the wind and get rid of Toroczkai and his followers. This decision may open the door to closer cooperation with other opposition parties. A first step in that direction might be to reach out to LMP. The two parties, despite many differences, share at least three strongly held views. One is their nationalism. LMP’s nationalism stems from its anti-globalist position while Jobbik built the whole party on nationalism in the face of forces of internationalism and the European Union. Second, both are strong supporters of dual citizenship and voting rights. It’s true that MSZP-Párbeszéd pays lip service to the idea of “national unification across borders,” but their heart is with the deeper integration of the European Union, which should solve the Hungarian nationality questions in the neighboring countries. DK openly rejects voting rights for Hungarians who live outside of the country. Third, both parties are fiercely against immigration. They strongly approve of the fence. In that respect, they support Viktor Orbán. Politicians of MSZP-Párbeszéd and DK are most likely aware of the necessity of eventual immigration to stop the disastrous demographic trends, but they prefer not to talk about this issue at the moment.
Given these overlapping views of Jobbik and LMP, I suspect that talks between the two may take place. We do know from Bernadett Szél that her party is ready to sit down with Jobbik. The other party that might join the talks is Momentum. It is hard to place Momentum on the political spectrum because of the mixed signals one receives from its leaders, who are for the most part disillusioned Fidesz voters. I’m sure they would protest if someone called them a left-of-center group.
Of course, this is just conjecture and represents what I consider to be the best case scenario for Jobbik. The first hurdle will be to prevent large-scale defection. The party has to convince its supporters and voters that Toroczkai’s radicalism leads nowhere.