football and politics, the “signature cocktail” of Hungarian nationalist leader Viktor Orban

The Euro football has just started and on Saturday Hungary will play its first match against Switzerland. The far-right leader, Viktor Orban, dreams of making the Hungarian selection the showcase of his nationalist policy.

In Hungary, all eyes will be on the national football team which will begin the Euro football on Saturday June 15 against Switzerland, with Viktor Orban as its first supporter. From 1998, as soon as the former pro player gave up his boots for politics, Viktor Orban placed football at the heart of a soft power strategy, with the aim of strengthening Hungarian identity, a nation he considers historically “white and Christian”.

A country, Orban repeats it every year during his Conservative Political Action Conference, which does not mix: “If we have divided ourselves, it is because we have agreed to mix. But we don’t want to become a mixed race. This is the great historical battle that we are waging: demography, migration, gender“These are the main principles that Viktor Orban worked to disseminate by using football as a propaganda tool.

His government funds Hungarian minority clubs in Croatia, Serbia, and Romania, but before that, Viktor Orban started by renovating all of the stadiums across the country. His government then created a tax exemption tool which made it possible to collect, in ten years, almost a billion euros, money intended mainly for teams in the Hungarian first division. And 11 of the 12 elite clubs are today chaired by members affiliated with Fidesz, the nationalist party of Viktor Orban. “The essence of football is similar to that of politics. The question is not where the ball is now, but where it will be. And if you understand before others, you are the first to act and you can win“, according to Viktor Orban.

Politically, Viktor Orban’s political-football thinking has borne fruit rather well. Viktor Orban was re-elected in 2022. And, although he hoped for better, his party came first in the European elections last weekend. On the sporting level, on the other hand, we can ask ourselves the question, because Orban’s idea is of course to revive the myth of “powerful Magyars“.

This 100% Hungarian team, Ferenc Puskas’ team, whose exploits date back to the 1950s. It’s starting to be a little old and if the Hungarian selection is making progress, it will participate in its third consecutive Euro tomorrow. She has only lost twice in her last 20 matches. If it is progressing, it is above all thanks to four players: Nego, Styles, Dardaï and Willi Orban. The latter has no connection with the nationalist leader. He, like the others, was born abroad and does not speak a word of Hungarian. A paradox with the Magyar identity that Viktor Orban dreams of, that of a society that does not mix.