Márton Gyöngyösi is the vice chairman of the far-right-turned-conservative Jobbik party. He was an MP for the party for multiple terms and is one of the party’s main foreign policy experts. Gyöngyösi has been an MEP representing Hungary since 2019. He is currently the only Hungarian member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) from the ranks of the country’s opposition. Gyöngyösi said in November 2019 that he would prefer joining the EPP in the European Parliament, where, according to him, Jobbik would fit perfectly. He believes the COVID-19 pandemic is a geopolitical turning point, accelerating the rise of a multipolar world order. Thus, Europe must accept that it cannot impose its own model on all civilizations, as the “reach and appeal of our achievements are limited.” The EU should, instead, take the opportunity to “mend and perfect” our own civilizational heritage. In terms of EU foreign policy, he says that increasing the Union’s democratic legitimacy by – among others – reinforcing the EP’s role and introducing real political competition into the election of the European Commission is the way forward.
Gyöngyösi used to be one of the main advocates of Jobbik’s pro-East policies. In 2012, he said that “the Eastern Opening Policy is a national interest of Hungarians.” In a 2015 interview with the independent online portal 444.hu, Gyöngyösi claimed that Hungary should not choose between the West and the East, the country should choose “both.” The politician added that Russia has asked for nothing but to have a buffer zone around the country where “neither the CIA nor NATO is active.”.
Gyöngyösi was also active in Ukraine. He was one of Jobbik’s election observers in the parliamentary elections of the illegal Eastern Ukrainian entities, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR). In a January 2019 interview to azonnali.hu, he said that “what we represented then and there was correct,” highlighting that the legitimate Ukrainian government was replaced in 2014 through a coup. Gyöngyösi was also highly critical of the Poroshenko government’s minority policies. Gyöngyösi criticised the incumbent government for its policy in Transcarpathia, emphasizing that it has isolated itself so much that it cannot represent Hungarian interests in international for even when the country is right, as in the question of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
In early 2019, Gyöngyösi criticised sanctions against Russia for only strengthening the Putin regime. In a discussion with journalists in November 2019, Gyöngyösi said that “Even if we need to strive for pragmatic relationships with Russia, China and Turkey, this cannot come at the expense of our connection to Western civilisation, adding that it is not an either-or question. However, according to Gyöngyösi, the Orbán government’s foreign policy “disturbed the delicate balance to such an extent, turning its back to our Western allies, which is now unhealthy.” He has also become critical of other politicians who cozy up to Russia: he bashed Heinz-Christian Strache for “wanting to sell his country to the Russians for power” and Matteo Salvini for trying to sell Italy out to Moscow.
In a Facebook post on 17 February 2020, Gyöngyösi stated that he agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who had said at the 2020 Munich Security Conference that sanctions against Russia were ineffective, as they changed nothing in the country. The MEP added that Europe’s relationship with Moscow is not a question of tastes or feelings, but the result of “political, economic and security calculations.” Regardless of these statements, he never voted against upholding or even strengthening EU sanctions against Russia. It must be noted that after voting multiple times for halting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, he abstained on the very same provision on 29 April in a text on the case of Alexey Navalny, military build-up on Ukraine’s border and Russian attack in the Czech Republic, although he did approve the full text of the resolution. He also abstained on a part of the text demanding to put a stop to Rosatom’s controversial nuclear power plant construction projects in the EU.
In a debate on the EU’s long-term strategy, he criticized the Union for not having one, unlike the United States. He said the EU should stand up for its own interests more effectively, especially when the Putin regime is attacking its opponents more and more vigorously.
At a Political Capital-organized event in 2020, Márton Gyöngyösi said that he mostly agreed with socialist MEP István Ujhelyi’s assessment of China as a power selected by the US as the enemy in a renewed cold war. Gyöngyösi believes that the EU should work towards become more independent in militarily, economically and in the field of foreign policy, forming a third pole on the international scene. Nevertheless, he remained highly critical of the Chinese regime’s internal and external policies, highlighting that Beijing’s conflicts with its Asian neighbors could even lead to multiple wars. He is also concerned about the Orbán government’s cordial ties with Beijing, including joint projects carried out in Hungary (Budapest-Belgrade, Fudan University, foreign policy vetoes), which – he says – might threaten to override Hungary’s political commitment to the West. On the event, he – as well as István Ujhelyi – agreed that levying sanctions on China would be a mistake by the EU. Gyöngyösi added that sanctions are good tools in certain situations, as in the case of Belarus, but are unworkable against China or Russia.
Gyöngyösi has advocated for the EU to take consumer protection into account when developing its China strategy because in Europe, companies have to make sure their products are sustainable and of high quality, while taking into account certain legal and ethical principles, while China is trying to circumnavigate these rules. He says it is unfair to both companies and consumers in Europe if China exports goods to the EU that are subpar quality, are not sustainable and were made without taking even elementary ethical principles into account.
Talking about the inauguration of President Joe Biden, he called on the new US head of state to return his country to normalcy, which should also be brough back to US-EU relations. Gyöngyösi noted that he should show other countries an example of good governance and “let us learn from the examples you are setting.”
Jobbik is seeking to strike a balance between Fidesz’s strongly pro-Eastern and leftist opposition parties’ decidedly pro-Western foreign policy orientations, which is what Márton Gyöngyösi seems to represent rhetorically. The MEP has expressed concern that if PM Viktor Orbán wins the 2022 general election, he would turn even more towards Russia and China, even if it means taking Hungary out of the EU.
(Updated: 13/7/2021)
Political Capital asked Márton Gyöngyösi about his decision to abstain on two specific paragraphs calling for an end to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project and Rosatom’s controversial projects in Europe. In response to Political Capital’s inquiry, the MEP noted that he supported the resolution containing the paragraphs as a whole because he believed the EP needed to approve a more critical statement in light of the events in Vrebice and the Ukrainian-Russian border. However, he added, “stopping a project that is missing an 80-kilometer section would cause significant damages to European taxpayers, even if it was a ‘strong message’ to Moscow.” He noted that he believes Nord Stream 2 to be an important question in terms of the EU’s energy sovereignty, but still believes that the disadvantages of stopping the pipeline outweight the benefits. According to Gyöngyösi, the EU should be independent of both Russian natural resources and American LNG, which is possible if the EU Green Deal can be implement as intended. Regarding Rosatom, the MEP said that the Hungarian budget might suffer more from halting the Rosatom-led Paks II project than re-negotiating the contract, since the agreements between Hungary and Rosatom remain classified, so the details are not known completely. The MEP also noted that Hungary currently cannot replace nuclear energy with alternative sources, highlighting that the currently operating Paks blocks would have to be shut down in the foreseeable future.
Gyöngyösi advocated for finding the middle ground between a lack of regulation on social media platforms and restrictions on the freedom of speech. The rules, he envisions, must be made at a transnational level to guarantee equal rights for internet users and keep populists from carrying out their anti-democratic agendas. He highlighted that to ensure a healthy infosphere, Europe needs an EU public media service that would use “classic” news media and online platforms to shape democratic public discourse and step up against fake news.
In a debate on the outcome of the high-level meeting between the EU and Turkey, he explained that he does not believe putting all the blame in the Eastern Mediterranean solely on Turkey is right. According to him, the main issue is that Cyprus joined the EU without solving the problem of the island’s division under international law. He says that the EU should start working on the issue to correct its omission. In a debate on the illegal actions of Turkey in November 2020, he said there is a federal solution of reunification for Cyprus, which should return to the Annan plan, rejected by Greek Cypriots in 2004.
In a debate on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he noted that since the invasion of the region by Armenian and Russian forces, “a dozen resolutions issued by the UN Security Council, NATO, the European Parliament and the OSCE have all been adopted with an overwhelming majority, if not unanimously. They all say the same: Armenia must withdraw unilaterally, restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and the Armenian minority must be granted autonomy on the territory of Azerbaijan. So international law provides clear guidance. The real question is how we enforce and implement our resolutions.”
On Belarus, Gyöngyösi said that the best prospect the EU can offer to Belarus is the prospect of European values, but questioned how credible the EU can be on this as long as it tolerates Lukashenko-esque regimes in its own ranks.
In response to a media inquiry about Jobbik's now rather critical voting behaviour in the EP, Gyöngyösi said that it was the result of Jobbik's move to the centre of the political spectrum and the fact that some MEPs delegated by the party to the EP earlier "made themselves independent from the party and did not work based on Jobbik's views." He added that "The Hungarian and European interest is striving for dialogue and peaceful co-existence with all countries in the world. This includes Russia, China and Turkey as well, with whom many European nations have pragmatic, fair relationships. At the same time, in the case of freedoms, we must state if we consider something unacceptable and in some cases we must take concrete steps because it is a question of European values."
Márton Gyöngyösi was critical of the EU budget deal agreed by the European Council. He emphasized that the Council “didn’t even attempt to bypass the corrupt centralized national institutions by distributing EU funds directly to the worthy local governments or small and medium enterprises.” This, in his view, will lead to the Hungarian government distributing most EU funds to friendly oligarchs. Moreover, the MEP condemned the frugal four for being “short-sighted” with the Next Generation EU recovery fund, in which the amount of non-repayable grants was almost cut in half. He is also dissatisfied with the Council’s compromise regarding rule of law conditionality in the deal.
Gyöngyösi said that Turkey’s “choice to return to its religious roots after a century of secularism deserves respect,” but turning the Hagia Sophia back into a Mosque is a “mistake.”
The MEP urged the EU to arrive at a common position concerning Israel’s threat to annex the West Bank.
Gyöngyösi blasted EPP chairman Donald Tusk for congratulating Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on his electoral victory. He says Vucic is building an illiberal state similar to that of PM Orbán.
Gyöngyösi said he wanted to ask former Hungarian commissioner-designate László Trócsányi why the Hungarian government is backing Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who is representing Russian interests. (László Trócsányi did not pass the JURI committee, so he was never questioned by AFET.)
In the debate on the EP resolution condemning Turkey for its incursion into Northern Syria, Gyöngyösi apologised for Hungary’s veto of the joint EU statement, stating that it is not the interest of the country to support this aggression. He emphasised that Turkish security concerns must be understood, but “we also have to make it clear that there is no military solution to this problem, only political and diplomatic. This aggression only further destabilises Syria, diverts attention from fighting terrorism and exacerbates the migration crisis.” In his speech, he advocated for “placing Europe back on the map” so it does not have to stand idly by as “other dominant powers take over control.”
Gyöngyösi criticised the Orbán cabinet for delaying an EU statement condemning Turkey’s intervention in Northern Syria, asking whether “Hungarian sovereignty is simply that the Hungarian government regularly weakens Europe to suit the taste of illiberal big brothers?”
In July, Gyöngyösi said that with a good strategy a Transcarpathian Hungarian could have become a member of the Ukrainian Rada, but Transcarpathian Hungarian politics was written in Budapest, forgetting that “Ukrainians and other nationalities also live in Transcarpathia, who are not necessarily enticed by the Hungarian government’s national romanticism.”
Gyöngyösi was photographed meeting with a staff member of the (now inoperative) Hungarian pro-Russian site Hidfo.ru, which Hungarian secret services allegedly believed to be backed by Russian intelligence. After the independent portal Index asked him about the meeting, the politician claimed that Gábor Szalai was indeed working for Hídfő, who had a “phenomenal” knowledge of foreign policy. He added that he met Szalai because he is open to any press inquiries. Gyöngyösi labelled the leaked photo as “Fidesz’s revenge” for the Pharaon case.
Gyöngyösi said that “Hungary acceded to the European Union with the leadership of a subservient political elite, which brought no benefits to Hungary, only disadvantages.” The politician added that “Russia does not interfere with Hungarian internal politics.”
During Jobbik’s moderation process, the party’s election programs went from calling for Hungary’s exit from the EU after a referendum to one that is critical of certain processes within the Union, but instead of exiting the bloc, it seeking to return to the ideas of its “founding fathers.” He told Index that Hungary’s current approach to the EU is highly counter-productive, disagreeing with the Hungarian veto of the EU-Africa Summit conclusions, describing it as a step that undermines the country’s credibility.
