Our Homeland Movement

Our Homeland Movement (Hungarian: Mi Hazánk Mozgalom, MHM) is a Hungarian far-right political party. It was founded by Ásotthalom mayor and former Jobbik Vice-President, László Toroczkai, along with other Jobbik dissidents that left the organization after the party's leadership moved away from its radical beginnings.

The party ran for the first time in the 2019 European Parliament elections, but 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.

History

On 14 October 2018, the party's politicians announced the party would organize a youth wing. On November 7, 2018, László Toroczkai announced to the media that 3 former Jobbik politicians, István Apáti, Erik Fülöp and János Volner joined his political party. János Volner later left.

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.

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.

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, Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Dutch Forum for Democracy and the Bulgarian Revival party at the Hungarian-Serbian border, describing them as "allies". Our Homeland Movement party leader László Toroczkai, as well as AfD's Stefan Korte, both held individual speeches at Alternative for Sweden's election campaign meeting held in Rålambshovsparken in Stockholm on 6 August 2022.

Ideology 
Although the party identifies itself as "third way", opposing the policies of both the left-wing opposition and the right-wing governing party Fidesz, Our Homeland Movement and its ideology has been variously described by the mass-media as nationalist, right-wing populist, far-right, radical right, extremist, and even as neo-fascist by the European Roma Rights Centre. The party has anti-immigration, anti-Islam and pro-Russian views, and was additionally accused of antiziganism, antisemitism and neo-fascism. The party holds national conservative, traditionalist and social conservative positions.

The party also positioned themselves as agrarianist. 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. With the distribution of land, they would like to favor young Hungarians in particular. They would re-establish the Hangya Szövetkezet (Ant Cooperative) 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.

The movement holds anti-communist views. 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. The party considers the Antifa movement a terrorist organization. They support the demolition of statues containing communist symbols, such as the Soviet Heroic Monument on Liberty Square.

To curb corruption, they would abolish immunity. They oppose joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office, instead wishing to establish a Hungarian Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office. The executive board of the organization would include prosecutors delegated by the government and the opposition, as well as non-parliamentary social organizations.

The party supports the autonomy of Hungarian communities abroad, for example the Székely autonomy movement and the Hungarian Regional Autonomy. 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. 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.

The party strongly opposes LGBT rights. 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. The party has called for a ban on LGBT pride marches.

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. The party also promotes vaccine hesitancy, having launched a petition against the use of COVID-vaccines on children aged 12–15.

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". They did not support sanctions against Russia and voted against Finland's accession to NATO.

The party supports the reintroduction of the death penalty, and conscription. They support the re-establishment of the Hungarian Border Guard, the development of the Hungarian national defence and military industry. However, they oppose the participation of Hungarian soldiers in international missions.

The movement would initiate a referendum on Hungary's withdrawal from the European Union. They believe that Western European multinational companies take more profits out of the country than money comes in from the EU. They completely reject the European Federalism. Instead, they prefer nationalist nation-states. As a result, Mi Hazánk has been described as nationalist, and eurosceptic.

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. However, according to the party's official position, students would be segregated based on their behavior rather than their nationality.

Organizational structure

Leaders

Membership

Electoral results

National Assembly

European Parliament

Mayoral, the last elections was in 2019:

Ásotthalom – László Toroczkai (2013–2022) 
Cserháthaláp – Dávid Dócs (since 2015)
Homorúd – Balázs Éberling (since 2019)

References

External links
Our Homeland website

 
Far-right political parties in Hungary
Nationalist parties in Hungary
Eurosceptic parties in Hungary
Anti-communist parties
Green conservative parties
Hungarian nationalism
Organizations that oppose LGBT rights in Hungary
2018 establishments in Hungary
Political parties established in 2018
Jobbik breakaway groups
Social conservative parties
Anti-Romanian sentiment
Anti-Islam political parties in Europe
Antisemitism in Hungary
Antiziganism in Hungary
Opposition to Ferenc Gyurcsány
Opposition to Viktor Orbán