Philippe Stirweiss © European Union 2025 – Source : EP
Careless and cynical statements by a Hungarian opposition MEP have caused a huge uproar in Hungary, revealing the true nature of the opposition Tisza Party.
Supporters of the Hungarian conservative government are organising a protest this weekend against the centrist Tisza Party for having “allied with Brussels” and “betrayed Hungary.”
As we previously reported, MEP Kinga Kollár said that by withholding billions of euros of funds, the EU had deprived Hungary of the chance to invest in public infrastructure and provide money for social services and hospital renovations.
“On the positive side, the deteriorating standard of living of Hungarians actually strengthened the opposition, and there I’m very positive about the 2026 elections,” she said.
This is outrageous! The Hungarian opposition is working against the interests of the Hungarian people.
— Kinga Gál (@kingagalMEP) April 11, 2025
The Hungarian voters sent MEPs to the European Parliament to work for the interests of the Hungarian people. This footage proves that the opposition Tisza Party MEPs are… https://t.co/yXDXQtIZ3m
In an interview on Friday, April 11th, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—whose government has been deprived of EU funds under the pretext of ‘rule-of-law violations’—slammed the Tisza Party for betraying Hungary’s interests.
“They’re not ashamed of working against their own country—they’re proud of it,” he said, adding that they are working to come to power “in collusion with a foreign power, the Brussels bureaucrats.”
❗️ @PM_ViktorOrban: Now we’re facing a situation where in the Tisza party, they’re proud that the worse it is for Hungary, the better for them and they are doing this in collusion with Brussels. pic.twitter.com/S7f63HXxLv
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) April 11, 2025
Well-known conservative commentator Zsolt Bayer announced on Friday that he is organising a protest in front of the European Commission’s Budapest offices on Saturday.
Zsolt Bayer accused MEP Kinga Kollár—who used to work for the EU Commission—of reaching an agreement with Brussels and wanting to destroy the Hungarian economy and the living standards of Hungarians in order to gain power.
Kollár is an MEP of the Tisza Party which formed last year after its leader, Péter Magyar, publicly split ties with Fidesz, Orbán’s party. Raking in the support of disgruntled anti-government voters, Tisza surprisingly came second in the European Parliament elections last June, with 29.6% of the votes, finishing behind Fidesz who got 44.8%.
Tisza joined the ranks of the centrist-liberal European People’s Party (EPP), whose leader Manfred Weber has made his intentions of wanting to get rid of Fidesz publicly known.
Viktor Orbán has accused Brussels of plotting to get rid of the current conservative government and to impose “a Brusselite puppet government on the country.”
His fears are not unsubstantiated.
The liberal elites in Brussels are upset by Hungary’s sovereignist and pro-peace foreign policy, tough anti-immigration stance, pro-family values, and its battle against LGBT propaganda.
As Mick Hume, editor-in-chief of europeanconservative.com wrote last year:
The fact that, in taking these conservative stands, Prime Minister Orbán might simply be reflecting the views of the majority of the Hungarian population only further infuriates the anti-democrats of the European Commission and their allies in the we-know-what’s-best-for-the-rest club.
Under the pretext of ‘rule-of-law violations,’ the European Commission has been withholding tens of billions of euros worth of funds from Hungary.
Brussels was similarly hostile towards the previous conservative government in Poland, but immediately released EU funds after pro-Brussels Donald Tusk and his leftist-liberal government came into power in 2023. The money was allocated to Warsaw despite the new government not introducing a single reform.
A similar scenario would not be surprising if Tisza came to power after the national elections in Hungary next year.
As Hungarian lawyer and a founding member of the National Resistance Movement (NEM) Gábor Szűcs wrote in his commentary for europeanconservative.com:
Just as was the case with Poland, we can expect that all Brussels concerns regarding the rule of law in Hungary would magically evaporate should Magyar gain power.