Fidesz
피데스
A Hungarian party that began in 1988 as the Alliance of Young Democrats, a liberal student movement against the communist regime. Led by Viktor Orbán from 1993, it turned to the right and governed Hungary in 1998–2002 and 2010–2026. After 2010 it pursued national-conservative and right-wing populist policies and entrenched its power through a new constitution and media law, but it lost the 2026 election to the Tisza Party.
In depth
According to the Hungarian source, Fidesz was founded on 30 March 1988 by 37 students and young people at the István Bibó special college of the ELTE law faculty in Budapest. Its name was the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége), and it set itself up as a counterweight to the Communist Youth League (KISZ). At first it had no president and was led by a six-member board of spokespersons; László Kövér, Viktor Orbán and Gábor Fodor stood out among its leaders. Orbán’s speech at the reburial of Imre Nagy on 16 June 1989 made the movement known, and it took part in the Opposition Round Table.
In the first free election in 1990 it entered parliament with a 22-member group, and in 1992 it joined the Liberal International. In 1993 the party congress elected Orbán to the newly created post of president, and the party turned toward conservatism and the right. Liberals around Gábor Fodor left in protest and moved to the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). In 1995 the party renamed itself Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Party.
In 1998 it formed a coalition government with the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) and the Independent Smallholders’ Party, with Orbán as prime minister. In 2000 it joined the European People’s Party and left the Liberal International. It lost the 2002 election and went into opposition; in 2003 it drew in other conservative groups, became Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance, and concentrated personnel decisions in the hands of its president. From 2006 it ran on joint lists with the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP).
In the 2010 election the Fidesz–KDNP alliance won 52.73% of the vote and a two-thirds majority. It then passed a new media law criticised for restricting press freedom and a new Fundamental Law that took effect in 2012, and it kept its two-thirds majority in 2014. After the 2015 migrant crisis it foregrounded anti-immigration rhetoric. The English source calls the governance strategy of this period, built on clientelism and institutional capture, the System of National Cooperation (NER) and describes it as democratic backsliding. It left the European People’s Party in 2021 and in 2024 helped found the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament.
In the 2026 election Fidesz was heavily defeated by Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party. According to the Hungarian source it won 52 seats together with KDNP, 44 of them for Fidesz. Orbán remained party leader.