Viktor Orban, an “agnostic liberal” who became a defender of Christian values

When Viktor Orban set sail for the Vatican in April 2022, on his first trip abroad after his third re-election as head of government, he declared that he was part of “a great Hungarian tradition”. But this tradition found little favor in his eyes three decades ago. On the occasion of the visit of Pope Francis to Hungary, from April 28 to 30, The world of religions returns to the spiritual itinerary of the man who presents himself today as the great defender of the “Christian values” of Europe.

The medium-length haired member of the Alliance of Young Democrats who, at 26, spoke of “the departure of Russian troops” on Heroes’ Square in 1989, had little regard for religion. “Viktor Orban defined himself as an agnostic liberal”recalls Istvan Hegedus, former fellow traveler and deputy of Fidesz, the party of Viktor Orban, which he joined a few days after its formation, in 1988 and left six years later.

The majority of party members, including Viktor Orban and Laszlo Kover (Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament since 2010)was even against the return of Church property after Communism”adds this sociologist, at the head of the think tank Hungarian Society for Europe.

During his first parliamentary mandate, between 1990 and 1994, Viktor Orban did not hesitate to multiply the derogatory comments towards the “cassocks », nickname he gave to his adversaries, the Christian Democrats. The 20-year-old also did not want to attend the visit of John Paul II to Hungary in 1991, described as “shark visit” speak Magyar Narancsconsidered the newspaper of Fidesz.

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God in the Constitution

From a Calvinist family tradition, the law student had his union with Aniko Lévai – a Catholic – blessed in 1986 by Gabor Ivanyi, a Methodist pastor and Liberal deputy, who would also baptize his first two children.

Between 1998 and 2002, Victor Orban became one of the youngest prime ministers in Hungarian history. But if he is relatively discreet about his beliefs, he has already distanced himself from early liberalism, having seized a vacant political space on the right as early as 1993.

During a visit to the Vatican in September 1998, Viktor Orban already declared that “the new Hungarian government places more emphasis on cooperation between Church and State than on its separation”. He is also noted for the ceremonial removal of the Hungarian holy crown, from the National Museum to the Parliament, in the year 2000, on the occasion of the millennium of the coronation of King Saint-Etienne, sovereign who swung Hungary into Christianity. .

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