| Our Homeland Movement | |
| Native Name: | Mi Hazánk Mozgalom |
| Native Name Lang: | hu |
| Split: | Jobbik |
| Wing1 Title: | Paramilitary wing |
| Wing1: | Nemzeti Légió (2019–2020) Magyar Önvédelmi Mozgalom (2020–)[1] |
| Youth Wing: | Youth of Our Homeland |
| Last1: | Cseresnyés |
| First1: | Péter |
| Horthy Commemoration Revives Political Debate over His Regentship | |
| Url: | https://hungarytoday.hu/horthy-commemoration-revives-political-debate-over-his-regentship/ |
| Website: | Hungary Today |
| Access-Date: | 15 June 2020 |
| Date: | 18 November 2018 |
Our Homeland Movement (Hungarian: Mi Hazánk Mozgalom, MHM) is a Hungarian ultranationalist and irredentist political party. It was founded by Ásotthalom mayor and former Jobbik Vice-President, László Toroczkai, along with other Jobbik dissidents who left the organization after the party's leadership moved away from its radical beginnings. The party ran in the 2019 European Parliament elections for the first time, but it did not win a seat. However, in the 2022 parliamentary election, it became the third largest party in the country with a result of nearly 6%, far surpassing public opinion research.
On April 8, 2018, after the lost elections, the president of Jobbik, Gábor Vona, resigned, true to his promise, and therefore a reform congress was announced in the party. László Toroczkai was the first to indicate his intention to run for the position of president, which was followed by the presidential application of Tamás Sneider, nominated by the acting presidency. Almost half of the congress delegates (46%) voted for the pair of László Toroczkai (president) and Dóra Dóra (deputy president). László Toroczkai announced that he is forming a platform within the party called Mi Magunk.[2] The presidency announced that it will not accept Toroczkai's platform because it considers it against the constitution, although there is no such decision in the constitution. Proceedings were initiated against Toroczkai and Dóra Dúró, Dóra Dúró was expelled from the faction, and Toroczkai from the party. After that, Dóra Dúró[3] and her husband Előd Novák left the party, so the Mi Magunk platform became an independent movement. Due to the failure of the platform creation, the new movement under the name Mi Hazánk Mozgalom will raise its flag on June 23, 2018 in Ásottthalom. As a result of Toroczkai's expulsion and the proceedings against Dóra Dóra, many Jobbik members and grassroots organizations indicated their withdrawal from the party or their dissolution. Some of them joined the new movement.[4] On August 20, 2018, they announced their Founding Declaration at their celebratory event in Budapest's Városliget, and the next day, on August 21, 2018, Deputy President Dóra Dóra announced that the court registration of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom as a political party was legally binding.[5]
In early 2019, the party made an alliance with the right-wing Hungarian Justice and Life Party and the agrarian Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party.[6]
In May 2019, it was announced the party would be forming the National Legion, a uniformed "self-defense" group similar to Magyar Gárda, the paramilitary wing Jobbik, which was banned in 2009.[7] [8]
In 2019 local elections, the party won 8 seats in counties' assemblies.In the 2022 parliamentary election, the party surpassed the 5% threshold to enter parliament, winning 6 seats and forming the second largest faction in the Hungarian Parliament.
In 2022, the party hosted representatives of Alternative for Sweden (AfS), Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD) and the Bulgarian Revival party at the Hungarian-Serbian border, describing them as "allies".[9] Our Homeland Movement party leader László Toroczkai, as well as AfD's Stefan Korte, both held individual speeches at AfS's election campaign meeting held in Rålambshovsparken in Stockholm on 6 August 2022.[10]
In August 2023, the party organized a joint "Declaration for a free Europe of Nations" with the AfS, FvD, Revival, the Czech Republic's Freedom and Direct Democracy and the Swiss Mass-Voll party, with a view towards forming a future new group in the European Parliament.[11]
Although the party identifies itself as "third way", opposing the policies of both the left-wing opposition and the governing right-wing party Fidesz, the mass-media has variously described Our Homeland Movement and its ideology as nationalist,[12] right-wing populist,[13] far-right, radical right,[14] extremist,[15] and even neo-fascist.[16] [17] [18] [19] The party has anti-immigration, anti-Masonic[20] and pro-Russian views,[21] [22] and it was also accused of having anti-Islamic, antiziganist,[23] [24] antisemitic[25] [26] and neo-fascist[27] [28] views. The party holds national conservative, traditionalist and social conservative positions.[29]
The party also positioned itself as agrarianist.[30] According to the movement, Hungary should become economically independent, and to this end, the party would create hundreds of small and large food processing plants in the country and announce a new land distribution program.[31] With the distribution of land, they would like to favor young Hungarians in particular.[32] They would re-establish the Hangya Szövetkezet (Ant Cooperative)[33] that existed in Hungary in the first half of the 20th century, whose task was to ensure that farmers achieved a good position in the market, allowing their interests to prevail.[34]
The movement holds anti-communist views.[35] The party demands the disclosure of agent lists, the accountability of party state leaders – for example, MSZMP leaders, KISZ secretaries, Workers' Militia and ÁVH members – and their ban from public life, as well as the withdrawal of communist luxury pensions.[33] The party considers the Antifa movement a terrorist organization.[36] [37] They support the demolition of statues containing communist symbols, such as the Soviet Heroic Monument on Liberty Square.[38]
To curb corruption,[39] they would abolish immunity. They oppose joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office,[40] instead wishing to establish a Hungarian Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office.[41] The executive board of the organization would include prosecutors delegated by the government and the opposition, as well as non-parliamentary social organizations.[33]
The party supports the autonomy of Hungarian communities abroad, for example, it supports the Székely autonomy movement and it also supports Hungarian Regional Autonomy.[42] They would support education of the Hungarian diaspora in the Hungarian language from kindergarten to university, as well as the use of Hungarian national symbols.[33] [43] The party wishes to establish the day of the signing of the Second Vienna Award as a holiday, called the Day of Homecoming, to commemorate the territorial revisions recovered by regent Miklós Horthy.[44]
The party strongly opposes LGBT rights.[45] After the release of a children's book, Meseország mindenkié, which features LGBT members and ethnic minorities as characters, the Deputy President of the party, Dóra Dúró, referred to the book as "homosexual propaganda" during a press conference, and promptly ripped pages out of the book and then shredded them. The move caused significant controversy and garnered international attention.[46] The party has called for a ban on LGBT pride marches.[47] [48]
In an interview with Mandiner, party leader László Toroczkai described MHM as "a unique green party in Europe", stating that "we are unwilling to accept that only anti-social and anti-human liberal parties can be green parties. We think that those who do not want to protect our environment, our forests, our beautiful Great Plain, Lake Balaton, our rivers cannot really love their homeland". Thus, the party is sometimes referred to as supporting some form of green conservatism.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the party has protested lockdown measures set in place by the government, accusing them of "inciting panic" and ruining the country.[49] The party also promotes vaccine hesitancy, having launched a petition against the use of COVID-vaccines on children aged 12–15.[50]
In foreign policy, the party advocates closer ties with Turkey, the states of the Persian Gulf, and the BRICS countries.[51]
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the party referred to Ukraine as an "unfriendly country" and called on it to give up territory claimed by Russia "for the sake of peace".[52] [53] They did not support sanctions against Russia and voted against Finland's[54] and Sweden's[55] accession to NATO. On 27 January 2024 Toroczkai said at a conference that the party would lay claim to a Hungarian-populated region in western Ukraine if the war led to Ukraine losing its statehood.[56]
The party advocates neutrality in the Israel-Palestine conflict and criticises the Fidesz government for its pro-Israel stance, with Our Homeland Movement calling for an immediate ceasefire and two-state solution, condemning the death of civilians on both sides, and describing the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip as a "massacre".[57] The party later invited the Ambassador of South Africa to Hungary to present its claim of Israeli genocide in Gaza at an event held at the Turkish Embassy, and advocated for designating Israeli settlers in the West Bank as terrorists.[58]
The party supports the reintroduction of the death penalty, and it also supports the reintroduction of conscription.[59] [60] [61] They support the re-establishment of the Hungarian Border Guard,[62] the development of the Hungarian national defence and military industry.[63] However, they oppose the participation of Hungarian soldiers in international missions.[64] [65]
The movement would initiate a referendum on Hungary's withdrawal from the European Union.[66] [67] They believe that Western European multinational companies take more profits out of the country than money comes in from the EU.[33] They completely reject the European Federalism.[68] Instead, they prefer nationalist nation-states. As a result, Mi Hazánk has been described as nationalist,[69] and eurosceptic.[70]
In education, their goal is to modernize the curriculum and reduce the amount of current curriculum. They believe that IT, English and physical education should be given priority. In addition, they consider the nationalist education of young Hungarians and their education for family life to be important. They support the creation of Christian and nationalist children's movements, such as the Levente Movement. In the summer of 2023, they started such camps in several settlements of the country. The party supports the segregation of Hungarian and Roma pupils in educational institutions.[71] However, according to the party's official position, students would be segregated based on their behavior rather than their nationality.[33]
| width=60 | Year | width=80 | Membership |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1000[72] | ||
| 2020 | 1300[73] | ||
| 2022 | 2500-3000 | ||
| Election year |
| % of overall vote |
| +/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 114,156 | 3.29% (6th) | – | ||
| 2024 | 306,404 | 6.71% (4th) | 1 |