to Central Europe

On the other hand, the former Polish leader of the initiative, Maria Piasecka-Łopuszańska
participated in a march of the French far-right pro-life, anti-feminist, anti-LGBT "Manif pour tous"
movement, also supported by Moscow, in Paris. 127,128 In June, 2013 Christian Women Against
Femen organized a demonstration both in Budapest and Warsaw before the French embassies in
support of the 19 activists of the pro-Russian far-right Identitarian movement (Génération
Identitaire). 129 The Budapest demonstration was also attended the paramilitary, revisionist Sixty-
Four Counties Youth Movement supporting the separatists’ cause in Eastern Ukraine, and finally
by Edda Budaházy who can be linked to the “In the name of family” pro-life Facebook group.
Institutions
Fidesz (political party)
Historically, Fidesz positioned itself as one of the harshest anti-Communist actors in the
Hungarian political life, denouncing any political bargain with the “heirs” of the Communists.
Fidesz had tense relationships with Russia during their first stint in government (1998-2002). For
Fidesz, the task before 2010, their re-election to power, was to master the usual pragmatic pro-
Russian turn. The turning point came in 2009, when, at a non-official meeting between Orbán and
Putin, the leaders came closer to each other. This necessary political move became more of a
strategic alliance between PM Orbán and President Putin with the “authoritarian” turn of the
Hungarian regime, the agreement on building the Paks Nuclear Plant, and the two countries’
growing international isolation. While in opposition in 2008, Orbán already praised Russia as one
of the winners of the 2008 global financial crisis. 130 The real pro-Russian turn of the second Fidesz
government was presented by PM Orbán in 2010:
“(…) As a matter of fact, Europe needs to face a situation where the Western world, our civilization
will regain the very spot on the world’s economic map it used to have 150 years ago (…). It is quite
evident (…) Europe (…) needs to find a compromise one or another way with other large areas
with Christian roots, not yet or just loosely integrated with Europe. We should not avoid the
obvious; this is about Russia.” 131
The pro-Russian turn of the Hungarian government has been driven by ideology and values from
the very beginning. Talking to a group of ambassadors in 2010, Orbán already named Christianity
as the main binding factor between Russia and Hungary. Meanwhile, Fidesz’s rapprochement with
Russia was presented by the Hungarian government as a pragmatic economic and energy-related
realignment. In fact, the “value-free foreign policy” became a bottom line for the Hungarian
diplomacy shielding Fidesz both from domestic and international criticism. The crisis in Crimea
and later in Ukraine has overwritten the Hungarian government’s foreign policy ambitions. While
Fidesz supported the pro-Ukrainian mainstream line of European policies in the EC and EP, the
party played right into the geopolitical divide by demanding the Ukrainian government to respect
the Hungarian minority’s rights in Transcarpathia in 2014, and by halting gas-flow from Hungary
to Ukraine.
127 See: https://www.facebook.com/ChristianWomenAgainstFemen/posts/10152224315465148
128 The "Manif pour tous" movement can be considered as pro-Russian, since not only the French far-right scenery is
soaked with Russophile interests and networks, but also the movement itself has a branch in Moscow, and was invited
to Moscow to meet Russian religious leaders and lawmakers to discuss the protection of traditional families in March
2014. See: http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/news/2014_03_31/French-defenders-of-traditional-family-tomeet-Russian-religious-leaders-lawmakers-5961/
129 The far-right activists briefly occupied the French Socialist Party’s roof to protest the gay marriage law and called
for the resignation of François Hollande. Their action was on the side line of the Manif Pour Tous march against gay
marriage organized in Paris. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2013/07/26/manif-pour-tous-militants-condamnessiege-ps-generation-identiaire_n_3656677.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2013/07/26/manif-pour-tousmilitants-condamnes-siege-ps-generation-identiaire_n_3656677.html
130 See full speech at: http://2007-2010.orbanviktor.hu/beszedek_list.php?item=66
131 See full speech at: http://2007-2010.orbanviktor.hu/beszedek_list.php?item=66
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